T-shirt Totes - Recycling T's

One of the items that I have that belonged to my Aunt Leta is her serger. In her younger years Aunt Leta was a top-notch seamstress. She could sew up ANYTHING from scratch. In her later years her serger was her pride and joy. I had never used a serger before and by the time it got to my house the threads were tangled and I wasn't sure of the threading. The other night my son sat down and got it all straightened out for me and I gave it a try on some old t-shirts that I had saved for crafting. Here's the first tote that I made.
To make a tote any t-shirt will work. One with something printed on it is what I prefer.

I start by stitching across the bottom however deep I want the bag with the shirt inside out. Then I cut off the sleeves and cut a large opening for the top.

To stitch around the openings I turn it back right side out. I turn it inside out again and stitch up the sides making the bag narrower and eliminating the underarm curve of the shirt. The picture below is three shots of one shirt. The front, the back and then hanging loosely.

These are four more totes that I've made. The Garfield has glow in the dark paw prints on it.

I think of my Aunt Leta every time I use her serger.

Falling Behind

I can't believe it's been over a week since I last posted. It's not that I don't have anything to post, it's just difficult to post and do yard work at the same time. My white lilies were really pretty this year.
I've been getting a lot of nature shots. This hawk and small bird were flying above us when we were at Kingman for a T-ball game. Not real sure what kind of a hawk it is, but I don't think it's a redtailed. I think it's small than that.

With my trees getting so large and the bounty of mulberries and sandplums, I've been noticing birds and butterflies that I noticed before. Below is a Brown Thrasher. They're suppose to be timid but this one was so intent in his bug hunting that he allowed me to get fairly close.

I'm not absolutely positive, but I believe the butterfly below is called a Question Mark. ?

Father's Day was the first without my dad. Two of my granddaughters had spent the night and both their father and mother worked on Father's Day so I had the girls make cards. When their mother went to work she dropped their brother off also and he got in on the card making too.

A few weeks ago when I went out to get the paper and mail I found a baby Bluejay sitting on my sidewalk. Days following I saw it in various spots in my yard but more often saw it's daddy flying around and dropping into hidden places in the yard.

Then a couple days ago I spooked a young jay out of my Rose of Sharon bush and up into the maple tree. I don't know if this is the same bird of one of it's siblings. It became interested in the beeping of my camera focus and even came in closer but those pictures didn't turn out real well because he kept flapping his wings.

My garden is coming along, planted late again. This picture is a week or two old, I need to get some new pictures to post.

The pools seen quite a bit of action already this summer. Can you see my cherry tomato plants along the top of the pallets? If they manage to survive I'll need to put them in bigger pots.

And then there's been the T-ball games. I have lots of pictures I need to post from these. I'll probably make slide shows from the games and post them all together in one post. PK has really been enjoying herself playing ball.

Texas Weekend

Weekend before last the dh and I drove to Texas for a surprise birthday party being held for a longtime friend of his. When we got into town on Friday we met up with the dh's brother and family for dinner at the Olive Garden. The nieces are familiar with this restaurant, during the wait for a table they spent their time looking for interesting rocks outside the building.
They brought their interesting finds for us to enjoy. The dh also likes to look for shapes in rocks so he really appreciates this skill.

The older niece found a rock with REAL personality. I told her that if she ever got tired of it we we be glad to give it a good home.

On Saturday we drove about 30 minutes from out hotel to the location of the party. The children of the couple had set this all up. It was even more a surprise for the father since his birthday is in November.

My dh was part of the surprise, they hadn't expected us to drive down. Back when they were in High School my dh had introduced the couple to each other, so everything since has been 'his fault'.

All the children were having a great time with the balloons. Then the dh showed them that if they tied one of the helium balloon strings to one of the balloons on the floor they had a balloon that would float just far enough off the floor to punch around. Next thing the dh knew he had all sorts of children wanting him to fix them up.

It was a GREAT weekend with friends and family!