Painful Cuts

I am done with the painful cutting.

I usually love cutting a project;

I feel strides of accomplishment,

lovely progress.

But this hurt.

I am making a quilt from my girl's baby clothes.

I cried as I cut each piece

holding it to my face

hoping to find some trace of their smallness

some whimper, a cry

of the littleness that was once them.

But it is gone.

They are big

and fast and loud

and they  laugh and tell me jokes 

and make me laugh too

and make it easier to cut.

It took me over a year

of looking and pawing over the sweet memories 

before I took sharp objects to them.

(I did save a box for each girl of favorite dresses and outfits

which I hope they will pass on)

And finally I am finished cutting. 

I used only knit onesies

and so I backed each piece with webbing

and trimmed them to neat little shapes

and saved each little ruffle and button.

I can see the finished product 

(waiting for me in pieces)

and I am happy.

Giddy.

Excited that these little treasures will no longer be 

hidden in a bag or box.

They will warm my babies again.

Even if they're not babies anymore.

What you should be doing....

is entering all the fantastic giveaways at Needle Little Inspiration.

I just found the Pleasant Home website and I love all the wonderful things on it

(including the Needle Little Inspiration section!)

it's a brand new design and all sorts of fun little sections

Be sure to browse around the site-lots of great ideas here!

School Time

Bailey went back to school over a month ago

but all these great ideas are popping up everywhere

I had to get a post in about them.

Just Something I Made had a cute post on teachers 

with these great graphics and 

a wonderful idea to print them onto a bag for your child's teacher.

Living Locurto has some pretty adorable downloads 

(and not just for school, browse around!).  Some of the ones I was fond of:

The after school routine 

School is Sweet  cupcake tags

Kids clothing tags

and morning routine cards

Over at Ucreate

I found a link to Mish Mash 

and tutorials for a cute clipboard and an apple card

Mommypalooza has cute little school excuse notes

And over at Babalisme, the cutest little labels

There are little apple note cards 

over at creature comforts

And at the very fabulously cute Orange You Lucky, I found bookplates

Today over at Tip Junkie they  had Creative School Lunches

And of course Martha has to put in her two cents with her Lunch labels,

 and notebook labels.

Which reminds me I've got someone's lunch to make...