Finally some pictures of the room.

Sorry to have skipped the whole month of May, but I've been on vacation, 2 vacations really. First my awesome husband took me to London for our 10th anniversary, then we spent a week at the beach with the kids. I'll post some pictures of those trips soon, but right now these pictures are long overdue! I'm still working on some details and trying to fill all the shelves, but here it is so far!

Baby girl's "Big Girl room":

I need a pause button!

It's funny living in the age of the DVR, my son thinks anything can just be paused in order to do something else. The other day we were making dinner together and he said "Can we pause it Mama? I have to go potty!". Ah, how I wish life did have a pause button, I could keep my children young (me too, for that matter!) and innocent forever. But time stops for no one. 

Heck, I could use a pause button just to catch up on sleep! Things have been quite busy here getting our office ready to be Baby Girl's "Big Girl" room and prepping for our garage sale. The crib, changing table, double stroller, etc. is getting sold (sniff sniff). It's hard for me to part with those items because they were part of the whole "New baby #1 and then #2" package that at one time seemed so unattainable. So I guess I look at these items as souvenirs of sorts, for a long rocky road that was worth the trip down just to see the beautiful scene at the end. But like most souvenirs, I can't hold on to these forever (like those participation trophies we used to get as kids, where DO they end up?), but luckily I CAN hold onto my children forever, in my heart if not always by my side.

Alright, on to something else before I cry a river on my keyboard!

I've still managed to make a few quick things here and there while doing the room and garage sale prep. First of I made removable pillow covers for throw pillows for the couch. I was sick of dog hair getting everywhere. So now I can remove them and wash them (I think... I kind of messed up and bought fabric that says dry clean only, but I think if I hand wash them they'll be fine). I can also make new ones if I ever get sick of these and still keep the pillow form inside (which were 50% off when I bought them!).

Next pet peeve put to rest was that our box of 64 crayons got torn apart (thanks to both kids pulling in opposite directions), and there were crayons everywhere. They needed a home, and I happened across a tutorial for a cute crayon holder so, ... problem solved. I saw these fabrics at a local quilt shop and just loved the pirate monkeys (so do the kids). I keep one set in my bag to have at restaurants. Oh, and if I haven't mentioned it before, I love the look of rick rack borders but I can't stand sewing it! Even when I pin it still gets all wonky looking! But it's good enough for this project. I also thought, after I used the elastic of course, that I could have just sewn in hair ties to keep them closed, goodness knows I have enough of them lying around! Anyhow, here they are:

Next time I'll put up pictures of the new room, it's finally painted, the bed is up and made, we just have to put stuff on the walls and move the computer out. So it won't be too long!

Not crazy:Twilight Tide Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

Twilight Tide Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

As usual, too darn cute!

Finally, The dancing monster!

I really had to cut this down to get it to upload, but, here he is!

Russian ballet, princess inspirations, and dancing monsters

A couple weeks ago I got to cash in on one of my Christmas presents from my husband. He had gotten us a night out, dinner and tickets to the Russian Ballet. It was an awesome night. The ballet was "Giselle" and the peasant maidens all wore dresses with little aprons sewn in. That planted the seed in my mind. Then I was window shopping on Etsy and saw the cutest little Cinderella dress (the working dress, before the ball). The woman makes all kinds of beautiful Princess dresses for little girls, none of which I can afford though! But it also had the sewn in apron front. And that allowed the seed to take root and grow in my brain. See, I already had made baby girl a peasant top but it was a tad too short, BUT I thought if I added a skirt to it and made it a dress she could get more wear out of it and it would be a trial run for the Cinderella dress. Baby girl loves it and has wanted to wear it every day so far. Here she is in it:

Having a tea party with her friends in bed:


In the backyard:


And big boy came home from school wanting to make a monster puppet. Okay. I never made a puppet besides from an old sock so why not. It was fun. He piced the fabrics, the type of ears, eyes and tongue (it's unusually long, maybe we should name him Gene). Now we're listening to the cable music and making him dance. Not sure who's having more fun, me or the kids! Here's a clip, it was longer but Blogger has a 100 MG maximum, but you get the idea. Opps, for some reason Blogger won't upload my video clip :( I even cut it down to meet their requirements. Hmmph.  Well, I'll try again in a different post later on I guess.

This just screams "Spring" to me!

Sunday Laundry Shirt Dress GIVEAWAY!!!!

This is very pretty!

Paper Crane Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

These are a cute way to be green!

Baggu Grosgrain Guest GIVEAWAY!!!!

Little rays of sunshine

Yes, I made it, but it's not mine and I don't think it ever was. This was the quilt I made to auction off for my son's school. The other homeroom mother who helped with it ended up winning it, but I think we all knew that was how it was going to be from the get-go! It looks great in her daughter's room. She also made a valence and bed skirt with matching sunflower fabric. It's cute. Each handprint is a little sunshine, just like each of the little kids in the class! Here's how it came out (oh, and that big blur in the upper left has the school name on it, I just blurred it out as a safety measure to protect the children since this blog is public- not that anyone but my friends read it anyhow! But ya never know.)

Back to the Future

Okay, after making baby girl an apron I thought about making myself one too. So I went out looking for fabric and this caught my eye. It looked very kitchen-ish. And the green fabric caught my eye too so I bought some and made the skirt. Oh, and Never say Never, because I didn't think I'd ever try to sew clothes for myself again, but I did, and this time I managed to figure out the invisible zipper (eventually). I wore the skirt yesterday and it is quite comfy. I'm a skirt gal though, that or jeans. Today big boy wanted to make lemon cake (the recipe was in his latest issue of "High Five" magazine) so I got out my apron and we made it! While it was baking I thought it would be fun to try and look like a 50's housewife baking. So I put some makeup on, dug out the pearls, and voila! Honestly I can't stand wearing so much makeup, it feels so yucky, good thing I didn't live back then I guess. Here's the picture (big boy took it). We're off to eat cake!
PS- Can anyone spot why I'm a dunce. Post a comment if you figure it out (there may be more than one reason , Lord knows I'm not perfect, but there's one "duh" thing in particular I noticed).

ETA: The "duh" thing was that I didn't notice the fabric was directional and I made it upside down. The stems are all on the bottom of the lemons. I thought some were stem up and some stem down (would have made more sense), but apparently not! Oh well!

If you don't win it, make it!

You may remember a few posts ago I entered a giveaway for a toddler apron. Well, the winner hasn't been posted (at least not last time I checked) and maybe I'm a pessimist thinking I didn't win because I broke down and made one similar, so this is "inspired by Grosgrain". I didn't use any really good fabric though. I just used what was in my stash, stuff I can live without that I bought cheap. Of course, this would be cuter with the dress in the giveaway, but for now it's got me satisfied. And it fits big boy too (not that he'd be caught dead wearing it, he did humor me to try it on for me) so I know it'll fit her for a while. I also made the shirt baby girl is wearing. It was easy enough, but next time I'll leave a smidgen more room for the elastic, I had to use a REALLY small safety pin to thread it through and that was a bit of a pain in the rear. And again, I used stash fabric, nothing fancy. I'm too much of a nervous Nelly to just jump in with expensive fabric for a new project. And it's proabably a good thing too, this shirt was a tad on the short side. Next time I might make it a dress. Anyhow, here's the apron and shirt:





The back:

And, here you can't see it, but she's have a utensil battle with her brother, he has a wooden spoon:

I've gone to the birds!

I am in love with birds now since deciding it was going to be baby girl's next room theme. This week I decided to get a jump on some artwork. I had an old picture frame I wanted to fill and a friend gave me some of her old scrapbook paper and I got to work. Here's the finished product:







And on a different note, I don't know what's up with blogger. Some of my pictures from older posts aren't showing up. But I found that if you click on where the picture should be you can still see it. Strange. Anyhow, have a good weekend!

I give you...the bird?

NO...not THAT bird sillies! (Must get mind out of gutter) "Wendy the Bird" to be precise. Thanks to LollyChops for the FREE pattern (and it's uber-easy). Here's my own little lovebird. Well, technically it's no longer mine, baby girl claimed it for hers and has been carrying it around all day saying "Teet teet, birdie". I'll be making more for decorations in her big girl room. They are too cute and too easy!

Here she is:

Happy New Year is WAY overdue!

Well, between Christmas, family in town at New Year's and the kids' B-day parties, I've been too busy to blog! But...not too busy to craft! That would be sad. Here's what I've been up to:

Making new basket liners for baby girl:




And a matching pillow (it's removable to be able to wash):




And a coordinating French Memo board for her big girl room (she'll move into it this summer). This isn't quite done yet because the store ran out of these cute birdie buttons, so when they are back in stock I'll finish it. It's great for storing all her hair clips.:







This is all to go with her new big girl set:



And I managed to quilt the top of the quilt I pieced for my folks as a Christmas gift. I'm binding it now (has to be done by hand) so they'll get it in a week or so. Doesn't sound like I was too late for it to be a Christmas gift right? Well, no. Sadly this was their Christmas gift TWO years ago. My machine broke while starting to quilt the top so it got put on hold. I got a new machine the following year for Christmas, however, I was also chasing after a 1 yeasr-old at the time too. And when I had any free time I didnt' have enough to be able to sit continuously to finish it, so I started doing quicker projects, or at least ones that could be stopped and picked up again at a later time. So I'm sorry it's so late, but better late than never? I hope!





And I've been having fun with the kids. My son wanted to make a monster, so he drew it, picked the fabric and I created it for him. That is a HORN on his head by the way. His name is Monster Mash. He uses his big hand to mash things, but he's a nice monster. Here's the original drawing and the finshed product:

This is so adorable...I want it!

This is TOO cute! I want this so bad! So I thought it would be worth a shot to add a link to enter. Isn't it adorable?

Grosgrain: Sugar Cookie Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

And a partridge in a pear tree...

It's the first day of the 12 days of Christmas, so I made a partridge in a pear tree for my true love. It took longer than I thought because the darn bird's tail feathers didn't want to work out with the fabric. So I decided to just cut my losses- literally. I cut off the tail feathers and opted for the wool felt instead. Overall it came out nice. I wanted the bird to be removable so I used a snap. Now will I continue tomorrow with the turtle doves? We'll see. I have a lot of Christmas sewing to do. I've been sewing what I want (pretty much passing fancies like this) rather than what I should be doing, so I've got to knuckle down or my packages will never get sent!

Well, only 11 more shopping days til Christmas! Fa la la la la!

Done

Not with MY Christmas shopping, but done with an order for Christmas. It's for an 8 year-old girl in Colorado from her Godmother here in town. I hope she likes it! It's my second attempt at doing a zippered closure. Seemes to work out alright though. Here's a peek:

Happy Turkey Day!

I just wanted to say that I am thankful for my family and friends near and far. I love you all! We are so blessed this year and have much to be thankful for. I wish you all much blessings as well!

And as a side, I realized I didn't have anything "Thanksgivingy" for baby girl to wear so off I went to JoAnn's yesterday afternoon. I was going to buy some of their Thanksgiving cotton on sale, but I saw this whale corduroy and couldn't resist. And besides, now she can wear it all winter long rather than just one day. I was going to add a strip of grosgrain ribbon to the front along the empire, but it made it seem too dressy and I thought I'd get more wear out of it as a play-jumper rather than a dressy jumper. This was super easy to make. I eyeballed another jumper she has, made a pattern and went to work (hint for any new sewers- always cut symmetric stuff on the fold)! I'm pretty happy with how it came out. I only wish I would have had snaps in a coordinating color (all mine are turquoise,purple, jade, etc or the standards red, navy, black and white) rather than the covered buttons, then I could have made it adjustable. C'est la vie! I'm pretty happy with it!
Here it is:

Where have I been?

Getting older! I had my B-day on election day. Oh well, such is life!
I've been sewing with knits lately! And it isn't so bad! I made a dress and lounge pants. The dress I used a pattern for but tweeked it (I'm not a pattern fan), and the pants I made my own pattern for. I have to say, the dress came out HUGE! I was using the infant size XL, but my almost 5 year old fits into it (as a top)! She'll grow into it eventually though. And can I just proclaim that I LOVE bias tape (you'll be able to tell when you see the dress, that was most of the tweeking on my part). Why hem when you can use bias tape instead? Baby girl is on the tall side so I didn't want to hem the length (that's not where it's big, it's big around the chest). Next time I make that dress I think I'll only have buttons on the top though and have the bottom be all skirt.

I don't have a serger but I used my machine's overlock stitch and set the speed to rabbit and pretended I did!

The lounge pants I really like. They look SOOO comfy (and were so easy!). I want some! The fabric came from Alyson Clair's (the famous Portland designer) studio scraps. I'm not sure what the fabric is made of but it's so soft and flowy, perfect for the pants! Thanks!

Here's some pics:

Dress:





Pants:

The morning after

Good Halloween. Kids had fun (except when it was time to go to bed) and got way too much candy. Sugar highs, yippie!
Here's some pictures:

Before:


During:


My what Big Teeth you have!:


Don't eat me!:


Morning after:

Happy Halloween!

Well, I was up late but not because of the costume. I was doing a load of the kids clothes before bed. I figured I wash them and then throw them in the drier before going to sleep. Well... I got the clothes out of the washer and there was this gel stuff everywhere. Each piece I pulled out had tiny bits of gel on it. I was thinking my son had put some sort of squishy ball in his pocket or something, but no. I swear I'm losing my mind. I guess I grabbed my daughter's clothes off the bathroom floor and I thought I put the pull up in the diaper pail, but aparently I put it in with the laundrey basket I was carrying. And if you've ever seen the inside of a diaper or pull up, THAT was the gel stuff in the washer. So, rather than heading off to bed I had to shake off all the clothes and before I could rewash them I had to clean out the tub and run a clean tub cycle with bleach (a 1 hour and 20 min. cycle!). But the load is finally clean. What a pain that was!

And today I spent all mornign at my son's school for his Halloween party. I took a video of them and got a still shot from that, it's not the best but it will give you an idea. And here's a couple of the wolf costume from yesterday after I finished it: