Thursday, July 9, 2015

Baby #4 and a prayer request

Coming soon in January!  We are excited, but I what I really need is extra prayers for my blood pressure, I always get preeclampsia and things get out of control towards the end. The last pregnancy I landed in the hospital early with high blood pressure (after laying in bed for two or three weeks- my kids were whisked away by my mom thankfully) and ended up with an emergency C-section when Brenden's cord prolapsed. So, please pray that things go better for me and the baby this go round. And my younger sister is prego too and due in September- if you could mention her as well in your prayers, that all will go well for her. Thank you.

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Tie dye sort of week!

I know SCOTUS is making us all mad, especially right before an important holiday. But it's time to shake it off and move forward and to continue having hope and be ready for where ever God calls us to go. So to help, I had fun this week tie dying with my kids, we decided to do t-shirts for the 4th.

 It started off with this old star table cloth I got from the Goodwill last winter. I loved the print on it and thought wow, that could have potential to be part of Our Lady of Guadalupe's mantle.




 I just wasn't sure how to go about it since it was screen printed in gold. I found out fiber reactive dyes do not stick to the screen print, or Washable Elmer's Glue, and probably other things too.  So we bought white t-shirts at the Goodwill this week and a tie dye kit at Walmart- Tulip brand. And we had fun picking out designs on Pinterest.




  Here's the results!

 The starry mantle for Our Lady of Guadalupe- it came out a really pretty green-blue- it was a 50% Cotton 50% Polyester- I let it soak all night and rinsed it in the morning. (Polyester isn't the greatest for tie dying.) Then I stuck it straight into the dryer to make the color set more permanently. Normally you would wash the item in your machine with a little bit of detergent. But since it's a costume I didn't feel it necessary since it'll be worn irregularly and the stored most likely and I wanted the color to stay put.



first we prepared our shirts with twisting and rubberbands


then we mixed the dye.  Don't mix dye ahead of time- it's only potent for about 45 minutes.




yes, even Brenden did his own dye- the bottles easily allow a child to do it, the flow isn't fast.


all our shirts- there's some extra rainbow dye shirts in there for Genna and one for a summer purse.


Genna's patriotic star t-shirt (Elmers washable glue)


First we made stars with Elmers glue (the white stuff or blue stuff will work), and we let it dry.  Be advised, but don't worry about separating the front and back if you are doing a simple design, the glue bleeds through and sticks the shirt together. You just don't have to turn the shirt over and do a second pattern on the back if you let it bleed through. We did that the night before and let it dry all night outside. Don't separate the shirt panels- they will rip. After you dye the shirt, it all washes out! And what's left behind is the design you made!

Knox's swirl firework shirt



Brenden's patriotic flag shirt



Thank you all, who have served, we pray for those who gave and are giving the ultimate sacrifice to protect our freedom. Happy 4th of July! Pray for our country!