The Ferguson Family

Monday, August 8, 2011

Padre game

In June we went to a Padre game with our friends the Tousely's. Brooke and Sophia had a fun time even though the game wasn't great. The stadium has a huge sandbox right next to the field and a playground behind the bleachers.

Eating her first hot dog at a ballpark.

Playing in the sand!

Playing on the playground.

My wonderful friend Kate

The girls walking with their daddy's.

Brooke's Summer

She doesn't get out of this car when we go over to our friend's house.

This has been a very busy summer for the Ferguson's. Brooke did a great job handling all the travels and change. She is growing up so fast and is talking and singing all the time. We tell Brooke to tell us that she loves us, but a month ago she said on her own, "Disneyland, I love it!" She now tells us that she loves us all the time. We are currently in the process of potty training and I think it is going very well. Only time will tell...

After a quick Target run, I ended up getting her a Cinderella doll and broom. She wanted to hold everything

She loves to wear her glasses. We found this toy at a garage sale for a $1. Brooke loves trains!

Smiling with Mommy at Sea World

Having fun with the camera! Love that smile!

She loves playing in her house!

Having fun at the happiest place on earth.

So happy be back with Daddy!

Waiting in line for Dumbo!

Hanging out with her cousins on July 4th.

Playing tea party in her pool!

Playing with a rolly polly and Grandpa

Our friends Matt and Brenna Bomar were married on July 3rd in Leavenworth, Washington. Kyle was in the wedding and we decided to make a little vacation out of it. We left Brooke with my parents for five days and took a road trip from Fresno, CA to Medford, OR. Then to Camas, WA and ended up in Leavenworth, WA. Kyle and I had a great time! We had yummy food, nice accommodations, beautiful sights and great company!

Brooke did a great job with my parents for 5 days, but it was a hard adjustment for us. By the third day we were working harder on relaxing and enjoying one another.

The wedding was beautiful and we had a blast visiting and dancing with old friends!

Friday, June 10, 2011

Growth Chart Tutorial

I am going to attempt to explain how I created my growth chart for Brooke and any other children God blesses us with.

The tutorial I used is here.

Materials:
Muslin fabric
Chambray fabric
Accent fabric
ruler ribbon or flexible measuring tape
vinyl or pleather
Wonder-under or Steam-a-seam 2
iron
picture hanger bracket-bought mine at Wal-mart
batting
5'5" by 12" board
scissors
pins

Also, go to her tutorial for number template and an illustration on how to put the different segments together

The best part about this project is that you can make it as simple or as complicated as you would like. I chose to keep mine very similar to hers.

Step 1: Creating Fabric Panels:

1. First I cut four strips of 9.5" by 2.5" of my accent fabric
2. Then I cut four 9.5" by 10.5" squares of my muslin fabric
3. I pinned one strip to one square and sewed it together with a 1/4" seam. I did this for all four pieces.

4. Then I pinned and sewed them all together in a pattern that went muslin, strip, muslin, strip, etc. You should end with a strip on top.
6. Make sure that from one muslin to one strip it should measure 12.5" by 9.5"
5. Then I cut out my numbers on the chambray fabric, which I don't recommend it ravels quickly. Then I cut little pieces of steam a seam and attached the numbers using that first. I did this so I wouldn't have to worry about the numbers moving while I appliqued them.

6. I appliqued the numbers on the strips using a wide criss-cross stitch. I am an amateur sewer so my muslin fabric pulled in some areas- oh well!

Here is an example of my applique. As you can see the fabric was unraveling under the stitch. This also shows how my tape measure lined up with my fabric.

7. I cut the vinyl material 4’ 2” by 9.5” piece and pinned and sewed the strip with the numbers on it.

8. If you find the ribbon I would just iron it on over the seam where the vinyl and strip meet. If not cut the fabric measuring tape a little under the 12 inch and applique using a little wider regular stitch, like so:

An example of how the measuring tape looked after I cut it and sewed it in the seam

I think if you use a matching thread it would show less, but I didn't care and didn't want to restring

I didn't want the stitch to go through the numbers so I chose to stitch it right under. It lays very flat and virtually unseen.
9. Then cut another 4’ 2” by 9.5” piece of fabric, mine was the chambray and attach it to the other side of your strip. This is what we will now call the main panel
10. Now it is time to attach the bottom part. You can either make your own patch work, do one solid fabric, or do what I did. I cut two strips, one 2.5” by 12” piece of coordinating fabric and another 2.5” by 16” piece of coordinating fabric that I used as the strips in my main panel and sewed them together. I didn't want my coordinating fabric to be right next to each other.
11. Cut another piece at 8.5” by 28.5” and attached to my strips.
12. Then I attached to the bottom of my main panel

Bottom part of panel

13. For the top part. I cut one coordinating fabric to 10.5" by 15.5" and the other 10.5" by 13".
14. Sew the two pieces together.
15. I then decided to applique more of fabric measuring tape over the seam.
16. Sew top part to main panel

Top part of panel

Step : Upholster
1. On a large flat surface, lay down the
fully assembled fabric panel.
2. Center batting over the fabric panel.
3. Center board over batting and fabric panel.
4. Starting on the long edges, stretch fabric panel around board and secure with
staple gun. Make sure to stretch the fabric taut as you go, eliminating any
wrinkles. While stapling, fold raw edges under.

Step 3: Enjoy
1. Nail picture hanger to the back.

2. Hang and enjoy! Use a permanent marker to mark your child’s height on the
white vinyl strip.

Hints:

I cut a template for my strips using a piece of paper.
If you don't want to bother with the strips just do some simple addition to create one solid piece to attach your numbers to. Just make sure you mark where your numbers need to go.
I didn't have enough fabric to stretch across the bottom and top part of the panel. It really didn't matter for me because no one was going to see it. For hers she put it in a doorway that people could see the back. That's why there is so much material on all sides.
1/4" inseam is about from the needle on the sewing machine to the edge of the metal thing that keeps the fabric in place. As you can see I don't know much about sewing. ;)

Total cost: around $30. It probably could have been less, but my accent fabric cost about $7 and I didn't have a coupon :( The good thing though is that I have a lot of left overs that I am currently making pillows out of for the couch. So really $30 gets you a FAB growth chart and matching pillows!

Poppa and Grandma came to visit

Kyle's parents were able to visit us for a week in May and we had so much fun! They hadn't seen Brooke since Christmas and she had grown so much! She was a little shy at first (maybe 20 minutes), but then wouldn't do anything without them. We played outside, went to the beach, and went to Sea World. When they left Brooke kept saying, "Weared day go?" It was so much fun and they will be greatly missed!