This is sew my life

On the HILL and Looking OVER...

2012-01-27T00:45:00.001-06:00

...should I take the plunge?? As I am writing this, the clock is ticking away bringing me closer to FORTY!! Yep, the BIG 4-O.M.Gosh!! When did this happen?? Just last week I was 30, getting married and having my first baby!! WOW, the time has flown by!! Oh well...guess that means I need to stop PROCRASTINATING so much and actually get things DONE!! HA! And to help me accomplish things just a little bit faster, here are a few goodies I got for Christmas and an early birthday present!!

My two big Boys gave me a gift card to Joann's, so I picked up a few yards of fabric and a really cool circle cutter!! See that yellow thingie? It's made by Olfa and has an 18mm (teeny tiny) rotary blade...which BTW Joann's doesn't carry!! Haven't used it yet, but it has got to work better than me cutting circles FREEhand!! ;) My Awesome man gave me those wonderfully shiny and new Gingher Shears!! I was in DESPERATE need of new scissors!! And my friend Rhonda was just bragging and going ON and ON about the Bias tape maker she got for Christmas...so that HAD to be my bday present to myself!! I have used that and it works AWESOME!! I also got one of these...

It's a Tulip light from OttLite! It's called the tulip because of the way it looks...and the neck pulls out...

COOL, huh?? I love it, it really adds just the right amount of light to my sewing room!! :)

Ok...so I know that I have been VERY absent from the bloggy world for a while...I've been busy being LAZY again!! It must be this crazy January weather! Our 24 year old finally left my couch and went back to his apartment (and he is doing well, thanks everyone who asked about him!)...so I couldn't use him as an excuse to NOT take down my Christmas stuff...so I did that, and some cleaning...and LOTS of laundry!! And then the birthdays, other than my own, began!!

One of Ms. Priss' friends requested a pillow...claiming her AWESOMENESS!!

10 year olds are so FUNNY!! And while I was at JoAnn's I found some chalkboard fabric...for $3.99/yd!! I couldn't believe it, because I had just priced some on the internet and it was $10.99/yd!! Is there a difference? Has anyone gotten this fabric from different places and found them to have varied qualities? Anyway, I've been wanting to try making a playmat...so Ms. Priss' friend was my official "tester"!

It sewed really easy, and seemed to take the chalk well..even though I didn't read the instructions about how to "prime" it before use!! Basically you just rub the chalk across the fabric by the width of the chalk, not just the tip. So I told the little girl to do that!!

I used a vinyl table cloth scrap for the backside, and some bias tape...THAT I MADE!! I know, plain boring fabric..I could have just used store-bought! But I didn't have blue...see, that bias tape maker is already paying for itself!! HA! Anyway, she thought it was super cool, so now I need to make some for my own kiddos!

My nephew turned 7!! He had an ice-skating party...so FUN!! He only asked for a wallet for Christmas, so I had NO CLUE what to make for him!! Then I remember seeing this bag on Pinterest...don't you just LOVE pinterest??!!

It is the Explorer Bag from Chez Beeper Bebe!! She has some really good tutorials...go check her out!!

I used an Army green canvas for the outer bag, and some fun frogs on a simple cotton fabric. I really LOVE her choice of fabrics for her bags, but I didn't have any homespun plaids!

I didn't find the bag too hard to do. Even the accordion pocket on the front was explained well. Here is the link again for the tutorial.

The Middle Child had a birthday party to attend!! She was SO EXCITED!! It might have been her first one that wasn't family related! So I went to one of my old stand-bys...

Just can't go wrong with a monogrammed hooded towel! :)

My SIL's mom is going to a big Mardi Gras bash and requested an adult-sized tutu...

This was the first adult-sized one I've done...and I underestimated the amount of TULLE that would be needed for it!! I had to go back to the store TWICE!! It is 22 inches long!! That's 45 inch strips I had to work with!! Once I had all the tulle, it actually went pretty fast....except for that leaving to go BACK to the store part!! ;)

Ok..that's all I've got from me...for now! I do want to take a minute to BRAG about Ms. Priss!!
She and her partner won Honorable Mention in the Fourth Grade Social Studies Fair!!

They did it on the History of the Teddy Bear, which is named after President Theodore Roosevelt...which I didn't know...until we started this project.

Her partner was my friend Kathy's daughter...those two are BFFs so of course they would partner up! :) I am so proud of the work they did...and Kathy and I did a little too ;)

Kathy even found a copy of a 1908 Sears and Roebuck catalog with an advertisement for Teddy's Bears!! It is in the previous picture with the red box around it.

Ms. Priss and I put together the example fabrics and stuffings wall. I didn't have any "real" looking fur fabric, so I ended up knitting some squares of wool, angora, and something synthetic and fuzzy that LOOKED like real fur!!

Ok..it is after midnight and I am OFFICIALLY 40, so I must bring my old and tired self to bed!! HA! Have a great weekend! Until later...

Christmas Gifts, and an EVENTFUL 2012!

2012-01-06T09:51:00.000-06:00

How was everyone's Christmas and New Year's? I hope Santa was good to you all! :) We had a wonderful Christmas! My children were all HAPPY with what they received! And of course, that made ME happy! While I was working on the school's ART Symposium, our girls really started getting into art themselves, so they were excited when Santa brought them LOADS of art supplies, easels, and even a fancy drafting desk with a cool ratcheting effect that makes the desktop raise up into an easel!

Our New Year's, on the other hand....well it was EVENTFUL!! While I was at my folks with our little ones, my Awesome Man and our two BIG boys decided to go to a nearby Daiquiri place to shoot some pool...they should have just stayed HOME!! While walking back to the house, our oldest was "clipped" by a car...YIKES!! Well, his arm was fractured beyond a simple cast, so he had surgery yesterday to put a plate and TEN pins in his arm!! He is recovering now, and will be back in the family fold soon...which means my house has been FULL and turned UPSIDE down!! I am thankful that it wasn't much worse than that...but will be soooo happy when we get back to our normal UNeventful routine!! :) Let's HOPE that is not a preview of how the rest of 2012 will be!!

So back to Christmas...I was able to finish all of the gifts for our extended family! Of course, there are ALWAYS I.O.U.s, but for the most part everyone was happy with the gifts I made them.

For my three nephews, I followed this tutorial from Noodlehead! It was so easy, and came out GREAT!

I used some scraps from my discarded Jeans stash!

And of course, it had to be LSU inspired!! GEAUX Tigers!!

I didn't use any type of interfacing, so they are not bulky or stiff! Just as a little extra, they also got an iTunes gift card to start the year off right! :)

For my baby sister, a nice little wristlet to hold her GC! I've been wanting to make one, and would LOVE to have one for myself for the times I am just "running in" places and just need my keys and cell phone! I found this really great tutorial...and it sewed up really quick, so I will be making myself one soon! :)

I lined it with simple navy Kona cotton.

And just for fun...I used some of those Crown Royal bags she gave me a couple of years ago when I made her lap quilt.

The other one is for my cousin, but I found out that he was in the hospital with pancreatitis(sp?) and decided it best NOT to encourage bad habits!! ;)

For my sweet niece, an art apron!

I've been wanting to try the iron-on vinyl FOREVER!! It works really well!! For the pocket, I ironed on the vinyl then folded it so the outside AND inside would be protected. The backing is just a simple flannel for softness.

Now I owe ALL three of my children one!!

My cousin requested a simple A line with ribbon ties for her daughter to wear as a cover up over her gymnastic suit.

Of course, I couldn't just leave it simple! :) I made it reversible, so she could use it TWICE as much!!

I even sewed two ribbons back-to-back to complete the look!!

For one of my other cousin's grand kids, I went with something old and tried something new!! For the NEW, a ruffled drawstring bag!

I used the simple cotton bags that I embellished for our Disney trip as a template. I decided to shorten the straps though because they were just a little too long when the kids wore them.

For the bag I used a cotton flannel and the ruffles were some cotton scraps. For the boy cousin, my old standby...a cape!!

Well, that's it!! Now that Christmas gift sewing is over I can finish up some orders, and start sewing for upcoming events!! I kinda started already...for two of my nieces I did some quick bows!!

Laissez les bon temps rouler!!! Mardi Gras is February 21st!! We missed last year because we were at Disney World...NOT that I'm complaining!! :) So this year I am super excited for the FUN to begin!!

And speaking of FUN!! How much fun was the SMS Giveaway day this year??!!! I LOVED how organized it was! They did such an AWESOME job! And I WON something!!

Isn't it soooo cute?? Check out Jenn's blog, Make Mine Blue. She has a much better picture than mine!! Thanks Jenn, I LOVE it!!

Well, that's the wrap up! Now I have to take down all of my Christmas stuff, and get to work on those orders...and a couple of birthday gifts!! Have a great weekend!! Until later...

Ready for Christmas....ALMOST!!

2011-12-21T09:59:00.004-06:00

Today is the first day of my children's Christmas break, and I NEVER thought I would feel....RELIEVED!!! With all of the Christmas programs, class parties, and just general running around I've been doing, I am happy that for the next couple of weeks I have NOWHERE to go and NOTHING to do!! Well, except for family Christmas celebrations and gifts that still need to be made...is it really only FOUR days until Christmas?? I've got to start SEWING...GAH!!! So this is what I've been doing for the last couple of weeks...oh, as usual it is kinda photo heavy! :)

I know they have some fancy intros, and blog buttons that you can use....but I have NO TIME for all of that!! SO...this is my version of I MADE SOMETHING THAT I SAW ON PINTEREST...

I have lots of the really thick cardboard left over from my Symposium tent...I am putting it to good use!! I cut out my ornament shape, primed the cardboard, then used Tempera Paint and glitter glue. I was going to use some fancy lettering, but ended up with a Sharpie instead! :) I'm really happy with how it turned out...now I just need to spray it down with a clear sealer before I store it!

Next I converted my Literary Pumpkin into a Christmas tree.

I did it really fast, so my pages aren't exactly folded evenly...oops! I was moving from project to project so quickly...and my dining table was ALWAYS filled with crafts in various stages of completion! Thankfully, Ms. Priss' fourth grade teacher is a little crafty herself...so I didn't have to come up with this project OR go to school to help do it!!

Don't you just LOVE it? So simple, but so sweet! Not our Elf, Rex...he just liked hanging out on the cool wreath that Ms. Priss made. It is a wire coat hanger, approximately 300 sandwich baggies...the ones that fold over, not zip, and a sweet little velvet bow!! I LOVE crafty teachers that think outside of the paper and foam box!! :) I made up some treats for the class...also ASOP (as seen on Pinterest!).

The original printable called them Grinch Pills! I didn't really want to use "Pills" in anything I was giving to children..so I came up with my own saying...

I used a free SVG file and my Cricut to cut the "boxes", then Ms. Priss glued on the label. Her class loved them! The fourth grade hallway celebrated a Cajun Christmas. All of the parents were asked to send in a food that was native to Louisiana...of course I made a King Cake...

A CHRISTMAS King Cake!! :) And for the Teacher's gift...a bunch of things I've been wanting to make, but never have...thanks SMS for compiling some AWESOME tutorials :)

They were so FAST and EASY to make that I did the same for The Middle Child's and The Boy's (not pictured) teachers...

As you can see, I didn't have the fancy key FOB hardware, so I just used two key rings! I couldn't find them locally and had no time to wait for an internet order!! The Middle Child's Substitute Teacher didn't get the Channeled Rice Therapy bag...I was already doing TONS for her and running out of time! I did mention that my daughter's Kindergarten teacher is out on Maternity Leave, right? Well, that left our Sub to do ALL of the Christmas programs and parties...and not knowing really what/how to do it!! Enter the most AWESOME Room Mom EVER...HA! More like the CRAZY person who thinks she can do it all....so I send a letter to all of the parents telling them that I am HI-JACKING the class Christmas party!! I planned and bought all of the craft supplies, and they just needed to send snacks!!

The first craft was pretty easy...Jingle Bell necklaces.

But I didn't like the idea of just plain pony beads, so we used wooden beads and some snowflake buttons. I also found some metallic stretchy cord, which I liked better than any other alternative.

The next craft was a little more work...for me and the class.

They were originally supposed to make a Christmas tree centerpiece using sugar ice cream cones, icing, marshmallows, M & Ms, gum drops, etc...but I thought that would be WAY too messy and time consuming! So I googled some other options and came up with this 3D paper version. It is a sheet of green cardstock cut in half width-wise, then stacked together and folded to cut a symmetrical tree-shape. Once the tree was cut, I sewed a straight stitch down the middle to make it stand on its own. We used foam stickers, sequins, glitter glue, and strands of Mardi Gras beads to decorate it!! It took the longest for the class to craft, but still much better than ICING a cone!! :)

The last craft was more involved for me, but I figured there are enough paper and foam ornaments on my tree and wanted something a little more sturdy.

This is the back side of the ornament. This was another ASOP project that I thought was just too sweet not to do. The materials used are aluminum can lids...cut using a safety can-opener which leaves a nice smooth edge, scrapbook paper, mod podge, and various trims hot-glued around the edge! There is also a picture of the child that is on the front of the ornament. Can I tell you HOW IMPORTANT it is to have a good CIRCLE cutter for this craft!! I bought the Martha Stewart one at JoAnns using a 40% off coupon! It really saved time and my SANITY!! I did mostly ALL of the preliminary for this craft...I didn't really want to be sitting in class hot-gluing ANYTHING...so all the class had to do was write their name and the year on the back and glue their picture on the front! :)

After all of the crafting, the class had just enough time to play a game...Pin the nose on the Snowman!

The Boy's Pre-school had a Happy Birthday Jesus party where Happy Meals from McDonald's were brought in...so I had NOTHING to do for them...except make a couple of initial ornaments for The Boy to pass out!

Notice how mostly ALL of my pictures only include the craft for my child?? That's because this momma was so busy making sure everything got done on TIME, that I forgot to grab my camera to snap pictures of all the prep work covering my table...GAH!! Oh well, when you are trying to do it ALL...like a CRAZY person, I guess somethings gotta give!! HA!

Ok...so this last item was done for a friend who needed it before Christmas...some jeans that her daughter outgrew in length!

I've never done a TRIPLE ruffle before...what a PAIN!! Looks cute though. Here is why it was needed before Christmas...

It needed to match this shirt, but also be wearable after Christmas. She chose the colors, because those are the colors her daughter mostly wears...whatever works...right?

So...FOUR days until Christmas and I have about TEN gifts needing to be cut, sewn, and monogrammed...then of course WRAPPED!! Think I'll make it?? Here's hoping we all have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Until later...

Still Busy...but it's not all CHRISTMAS!

2011-12-12T09:09:00.000-06:00

So when I was done with ART Symposium at the Girls' school, I thought for sure I would be starting on my Christmas crafting....oh how I was wrong!! You may try to leave...but they will PULL you back in!! Kathy and I received a distress call from another mom who was in charge of the Library Book Sale decorating...yep we answered it!! I guess when you do something crafty and put it on display, you should expect to be asked to do MORE!! So I showed up to a "paint party" at the mom's house thinking I would be putting a day into creating a panel for the hallway leading to the school Library...NO ONE was there...except for the mom in charge...and she was sick!! So I left her house with THREE panels to decorate!! The only "instruction" I was given was that the theme was "Wild about Books"!

Here is the first one:

I wanted it to be "girly" so I could put some Girl Book titles on it! I had the hippo from Fantasia in my head and just went from there. The panel is actually a giant foam board covered in bulletin board paper. I then used wood paneled Contact paper to make the "tree", and some more paper for the leaves. The hippo is tempera painted on with a tulle tutu glued to the panel. The giraffe is paper pieced then painted on. I used hot glue for the ribbon, but Craft Bond glue stick for the paper piecing. The cheetah is my favorite!! She was roughly drawn on the paper, then I pieced craft FELT to fill her in!! I used the Craft Bond EXTREME glue stick...that stuff WORKS!! I had so much fun doing these panels...but it did take away from my Christmas crafting...oh well...

Here is the second panel I did...

I wanted to do a "Night-themed" one because of the book Stellaluna!! I had a whole bunch of craft paper scraps after I cut 22 "V" vests for The Middle Child's Thanksgiving Feast...and I HATE to waste!! So I used the rolled paper to make the trees!! Once again, I used the Craft Bond EXTREME glue stick to adhere them to the panel. Then threw some tempera paint to add "texture"...Kathy must be rubbing off on me :) I didn't have a lot of time to work on this panel, so I printed outlines of the animals then cut and glued them to the panel. After, I went over them with tempera paint...worked out much better than me trying to draw or trace all of the animals!! Thankfully, Kathy saved me from the third panel...she took it and did a Rainbow Fish underwater theme...sorry, no picture!! So once that was done, I was free to work on other things...but first, I wanted to show you my really QUICK Thanksgiving wreath I did for my momma...

It was my Halloween wreath that I did with the orange drywall tape. Same scrappy burlap flowers...I just added some thick felt leaves, a different ribbon, and a scrappy "Give Thanks"!!

So I've been knitting....a little...

This was a really quick hat I did for my SIL's new baby niece!! Her momma sent me a couple of picture texts of hats asking if I could make one...for that sweet babe...OF COURSE!

Her big brother had a birthday in November...this is what he requested...

Spiderman is his favorite super hero...so why shouldn't he have a cape?? HA! I made it reversible...just in case he realized that Spidey is NOT a cape-wearer!!

Ms. Priss had a couple of birthday parties to attend this month also...

Pillows are my "go to" gifts these days!! And headbands...

These are for the second birthday girl...

YAY!! A little Christmas crafting!! :) The last two headbands were actually for Ms. Priss' BFF...she got a bag full of goodies and an I.O.U. from me!! I promised to make her a pair of jammies, but realized too late that I didn't have enough fabric...GAH!! So she is owed a trip to the fabric store to pick out her own PJ fabric! :)

I mentioned a couple of post ago about making ornaments with my GS Daisy troop for a swap...well here they are!!

They all did such a good job!! I brought them white air-dry clay and cookie cutters; floral wire, jingle bells, and some ribbon; and some pre-cut felt circles with the GS logo already stitched on!! They all picked which type of ornament they wanted to make and went to town!! I brought them home...under LOTS of protest to let the clay dry and add the hanging ribbons. The air-dry clay took a LONG time to dry...like a WEEK long of constantly turning to make sure they dryed evenly. Maybe it is the humidity in LA that makes them take sooo long. I want to do some with my kiddos...can I put air-dry clay in the oven??

Any way, the swap was cancelled...bummer!! BUT the girls were sooooo happy to get to keep the ornaments they made, so all ended well!! :) This month we did some winter-themed tee shirts...

I was just going to paint the mitten on the shirt, but ended up not getting all of the tee shirts in time!! So I cut the mittens from felt and the cuffs from various fleece and felt scraps. Then decided to go ahead and monogram all of the girls' names on the cuffs...for FUN! :) I used a machine blanket stitch to sew them to the shirts...it just looked RIGHT!!

Then brought them all to the meeting so the girls could put their handprint on them....too cute!!

As you can see...some of the girls still forgot their shirts...and one little girl tells me, "my momma doesn't want me to get paint on my hands..." WHA-??? So I improvised by putting her hand on the mitten and painting AROUND it...think they can THWART me, huh?? HA!

So wrapping up this super-long post....The Middle Child's teacher has left to have her third sweet baby...which means aLOT of work during pre-Christmas week for this ROOM MOM!! Anyway, before she left to have her baby BOY...after having two girls, she asked if I could re-fashion her baby swing cover to make it more "BOY-ish". She sent me the cover and a thrifted bed ruffle...this is how it turned out..

Not too bad...but my machine did NOT like all of those LAYERS!! I finished it and got it back to her a whole day before she left for maternity leave...yay!!

SO this is SMS GIVEAWAY WEEK!!! Are you participating?? I'll be visiting...so should everyone else!! Head over to Sew Mama Sew! for the list of link ups!!! Until later...

ART Symposium 2011

2011-11-23T11:09:00.001-06:00

Well, I made it through Symposium week...YAY!!! For those of you who are new, our PTC puts on an educational Symposium every year for the students of our Elementary school. It is paid for by our annual BBQ dinner fund raiser and is done completely by PARENTS, and it is alot of WORK!! This year's theme was ART, and we had a ball!! We started the week off with a parade Monday morning, and ended it Friday with Tent Day. Each tent was represented in the parade. This is my friend Kathy's last year, since her daughter is in the fourth grade with my oldest and will be moving on to Middle School next year. I allowed her to talk me into doing a tent with her, where in the past I've only worked in someone else's tent! Our tent's theme was Art in Literature, so for the parade we dressed as book characters.

Sorry for the blurred faces, but check out those HUGE letters!! I used a circular saw for the first time, and cut them out of plywood...go ME!! I also primed them, but made someone else paint them! I also used a miter saw for the first time cutting the PVC pipe at a 45 degree angle to prop the letters up! I was Olivia, and the kids were the dinosaur from Chalk, Fancy Nancy, Lil Bo Peep, and Madeline. The only sewing I've done in the past couple of weeks was to make the Madeline's cape using this awesome tutorial!

Not only did I allow Kathy to talk me into doing a tent, but she also wanted to go into EVERY class and teach an Art technique...so we did!! Seven Kindergarten classrooms and seven first grade classrooms did Buffalo skin "paintings"!

We taught the children about how Indians used symbols to tell stories of the Tribe's year. Each child got to use a symbol that they liked best. The buffalo "hides" are made from thick brown craft paper that we found at Lowe's by the paint department. The children used charcoal to make the symbols.

For the six 2nd grade classes, we split them in half and taught two different techniques used by book illustrators. Three classes did Eric Carle's painted tissue paper collages...

Did you know that Eric Carle and his wife opened a Picture Book Art Museum in Amherst, MA??!! I would LOVE to visit it!!

And three classes did Marcus Pfister's watercolor technique used in Rainbow Fish...

At the end of the week, we chose two paintings from each 2nd grade class to display in our tent!

Six 3rd grade classes learned about Clemetine Hunter, and re-created one of her paintings.

Clemetine Hunter was the granddaughter of a slave. Although not a slave herself, having been born after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, she worked on a plantation for very low wages and never learned to read or write. She painted on whatever she could find, mostly paper grocery bags. So the students used the same thick brown craft paper we used for the buffalo "hides", to represent Clementine's "canvases".

For the six 4th grade classes, we had to stick close to their curriculum. So some classes learned about Lewis & Clark, some Pioneers, and one class learned about the first assembly line. We taught the lessons then had the students paint or draw something they learned. Then we put them all together for a Story Quilt!!

I didn't get a picture of the Assembly Line Grid, unfortunately, but it was AWESOME!! Kathy really put alot of thought into the 4th grade lessons and art projects!! She did a really great job, and we are very proud of what we were able to accomplish with lots of help from other Parents coming in when we needed them!!

Once all of the Classroom projects were done...we still had to get our tent together!! Since we were in the classrooms all day, we were usually up painting storybook characters ALL NIGHT!! Thankfully, we had other super talented moms and dads helping us out!!

Here is a walk through of our tent! As the children walked up they were able to view the 4th grade French classes' work using Cubism. Our French teacher uses this technique to teach shapes! The Eiffel Tower was done by a parent last year for the Library's Literature around the World night, and has resided in the french class ever since. It tied in very well with our Madeline.

The front of our tent was done with our Kindergartners in mind. We used the Nursery Rhyme characters to greet them, and of course the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree!!

The mushrooms are from Alice in Wonderland...we had an Alice after this photo was taken! The mushrooms got bigger as the children begin "shrinking" into our giant Book!

The first presentation was on all the various types of ways illustrators use to tell stories. We talked about Dr. Suess, Eric Carle, Marcus Pfister, and other illustrators' techniques. Storybook Art is not always drawn pictures. It is really a child's first introduction to Concept Art.

Don't you LOVE this?? Rhonda, from You Sew Silly Mama made it. It is stitched, painted, wired...you name it!! She took characters out of her favorite children's book to make this masterpiece!! She is AWESOME, and with three adorable girls running around it amazes me all she gets done...thanks girl!!! BTW, she also did the Chicka Boom tree...that's what she gets for telling me she was done early!! teehee!

This was done by another momma! She came to our first meeting, then we saw her at the Art Walk downtown. We knew we wanted something special to represent Suess....she NAILED it!! Thanks Margo!!

One of Ms. Priss' oldest friend's mom did the Bone piece for me!! This is what she tells me, "oh, I draw a little...I guess I can try to do something" WHA-?? A LITTLE?? See the AMAZING talent I'm surrounded by? My neighbor across the street did the Green Eggs & Ham character as well as Curious George and the Wild Thing with Max!! I am soooo thankful to have such wonderful friends!!

Having all of these talented friends made me want to attempt a character without having Kathy come back and fix it like she did with many of the other characters I did....what do you think?

I drew him WITHOUT the projector and painted him freehand....of course he would have look 20 times better if Kathy had put some artsy touches to him, but I was pleasantly surprised with the little bit of skill I had!! :) The table next to him was set up with Caldecott winners. That was the next part of the lesson of the tent. I went over the history of the Caldecott medal, and that they could all be found in a special section of the Public Library. Kathy and I also "read" from our favorite Picture Books. Hers was The Lion and the Mouse, mine was Chalk!! Here's a quick review of the book. I LOVE this book...you know how the Boy LOVES dinosaurs!! We found it at the Library one day...and I've had it ever since!!! I finally returned it yesterday, with the 30 other books I used!!! Santa will be looking for a copy to leave under the tree this year!!

So leaving the tent, was our display for our 2nd grade winners....

And of course CHALK!!

The kids got to use some of my magic chalk to make their own art come to life!!

Sorry this post is sooooo picture heavy!! I am just so proud of all the work that was put into Symposium week!! Of course, there were OTHER tents besides ours!! HA! Although I didn't get a chance to see them all...I gave my camera to Rhonda to get a couple of snaps....

The Art of Motion Picture tent where the kids learned how to make drawings into moving pictures....

And here is the Bead Art tent where the kids used LOTS of Mardi Gras beads to make Art!

Speaking of Mardi Gras....we had a tent for that!!

The students learned about Mardi Gras inspired art and got to eat King Cake...out of season!!

They also made Mardi Gras masks!

This was the Museum Art tent...

The kids had a BLAST making their own ART!!

Well....this post has taken me a couple of HOURS to get out...whew!!! I did not have any time to finish any Fall crafting I wanted to get done, so I guess the next time I post it will be all about CHRISTMAS!!! Are you ready? I plan on being in the stores with my belly full of TURKEY in a day or so....Black Friday shopping is FUN!! I know I'm crazy, but it really helps to have it out of the way so I can sew and craft until Christmas without having to think about SHOPPING!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!! Until later...

Nursery Rhyme Day...and NO, I didn't forget about Halloween!!

2011-11-03T00:38:00.002-05:00

Although, with all of the CRAZY going on around here...I could have!! How was your Halloween? I haven't even had time to check out all of your costumes...UGH!! I promise to try to take some time this week!! So thankfully, I have been meeting every deadline and getting things done ON TIME!! I hope it holds up!! Last week was The Middle Child's Nursery Rhyme Day for all of the Kindergartners. Our teacher is new and had nothing for decorations and classroom set up! Enter the most AWESOME Room Mom...EVER!!!

She let me do what I wanted...isn't she sweet?

My friend, Kathy's daughter was raggin' on my poor wonky cow!! "Is that a dog?" she so innocently asked...the SASS!! I said, "um, NO!! Sorry but we can't all be talented arteest like your momma!!" We'll get to her mad skillz later...we're still talking about ME!! ;)

The dish running away with the spoon...

and the itsy bitsy spider...or Ms. Muffet's, whichever you prefer!!

Ok...now we can get to my friend Kathy...but I will say that I did all of the HARD work!! She just came in and used all of her artsy skills to make the characters come ALIVE!!

Remember all of that cutting I was talking about? The character cutouts are painted on one and a half inch cardboard!! We went to International Paper and got LOADS of it. But it is sooo thick that you have to use a jigsaw to cut it!! So for our Nursery Rhyme Characters, I grabbed the ol' Mother Goose book and a transparency! I have an old Overhead projector that my baby sister gave me a couple of years ago. So I used that to "draw" the characters on the cardboard. Then I took it outside and cut it, painted on some primer, and the first coat of tempera paint. Enter the artist...although, she did let me do the bricks with her pastel crayon thingies!! But she nixed the original face I had because the features were too small for Humpty's big head!!

Here is The Middle Child's Classroom set up for the BIG DAY!! I brought all of the characters in Wednesday after school, and hung the paper curtains. Did I mention that our teacher is about 8 months pregnant?? No ladders for her!! Thursday all of the children came dressed in the Nursery Rhyme Character that they were reciting that day. The Middle Child was Little Bo Peep. Her costume was given to me by guess who?? :) They all did so good!! We were all proud parents...then we had cupcakes!!

Yep...I did them too!! Of course, another mom brought some too...but we are still talking about ME!! The toppers are what I'm showing off here...not the cupcakes!! I promise they taste better than they LOOK! And I did make toppers for all 48 cupcakes, not just mine! Us moms like to coordinate, ya know. :)

So, I stayed until the festivities were over and took everything down...and brought them to different rooms for the other teachers to use for their Nursery Rhyme Day the next day!! Share and share alike...that's how our teachers do it!! I'll be collecting the character cut outs to store until Symposium on the 18th of November...yeah, like in TWO WEEKS!!! We have four done....we have THIRTY more to go!!!! Give us strength!!

See...I didn't forget about Halloween!!

For The Boy's orange day....

and for the girls' class treats....

toilet paper rolls, scrapbook paper, tissue paper, and alot of glue!!

We went to Yogi Bear campground for the weekend!! It was very nice and the kiddos got LOTS of candy!! Then we came home so I could prepare for The Middle Child's class party and Halloween Craft.

All ready...just need little hands...

or really, their fists!! This idea is from my friend Kathy...again!! Do ya'll get tired of me talking about her?? Sorry, but she's da BOMB!! ;) She was one of the Room Mom's for Ms. Priss when she was in Kindergarten. I LOVED this little poem and pumpkin so much when she brought it home, that I just had to do it for The Middle Child too!! Thanks Kathy!! Oh and did you notice the glue stick? It works REALLY well!!

And finally, a costume!! When I first saw this on Running with Scissors, I KNEW that I would one day make one of these for The Boy!!!

And here is his whole costume...

And here he is IN his costume...well, some of it. He actually wore a green long sleeved shirt and jeans for Trick or Treating...it got COLD!!

Don't you just love his "head and claws"?? I was racking my brain trying to think of how to do a dinosaur head!! We were in JoAnn's and he saw the visor and said "dinosaur head"!! He is SOOOO SMART!! And EASY!!! No hard costumes for this boy! The teeth and claws are stiff white felt. I just used some stretchy scraps and hot glued the claws on after sewing a tube to fit his wrist! Can you see I used a red Sharpie to make his claws bloody...he loved that!!

Well, that is all for now!! I had my GS Daisy meeting today and I am whipped!! We made ornaments for an upcoming swap at the zoo!! More on that later....much later!! The next couple of weeks will be consumed with Symposium stuff. But while I was at my folks, I found these...

They are acorns from a White Oak tree and are HUGE!! I want to use them to make some of these....yeah Amy, I'm copying you!! Until later....

Halloween Decorating Fun!!

2011-10-24T08:18:00.000-05:00

Halloween is almost upon us...are you ready?? I think I am just about done with the house decorating, now to get my kids costumes done!!! I've been up to my eyeballs in finishing up the cardboard cutouts and banner for The Middle Child's Nursery Rhyme Day!! All that is left to do is the actual character painting...and thankfully my friend Kathy, the artist will be here later to help me!! More on those later...back to Halloween decorating!!

I have had little spurts of free time here and there, so I've been checking out what's happening around our crafty little blogosphere. Have you seen the Literary Pumpkins? LOVE them!! I found an old book under my carport...must have fallen out of the Goodwill box!!

I chose not to put a jack-o-lantern face on it, just a couple of pretty little ribbons...

Over at Craftaholics Anonymous I found these little cuties...

Loved them so much I cut up TONS of paper strips and circles so our GS Junior Troop could do some at our last meeting!!

And thanks to my sweet and so TALENTED friend Melanie...I've become obsessed with these wire pumpkins...

The big one was purchased a couple of years ago...the smaller one is the one I made using some floral wire from JoAnns. But, of course, I didn't stop there...

The bright orange one is using jewelry wire...

Then I tried wired ribbon!!! See OBSESSED!! Did ya see the little coppery one?

Fancy huh? My obsession was really RESEARCH, see my friend Kathy and I were going to do this craft with Ms. Priss' fourth grade class, and we needed to find the cheapest alternative!! So we went to Home Depot...

and found Copper Cerrowire! $12 for this 250 ft roll!! It is not just one big wire, it is several strands wrapped together...sorta like embroidery floss. So once the pumpkin was coiled and spread, we just separated the individual strands to give it the full effect!! Cool, huh? So anyway, the teacher got lots of chenille stems and the students ended up using those instead...but we had fun at Home Depot anyway!!! :)

Do you know you can get Drywall Tape in a variety of COLORS?? It looks just like BURLAP....see??

Doesn't it look like BURLAP?? And it is sticky...so you don't have to use any glue to get it on the wreath form, which by the way is another pool noodle spray painted black!!! I was so tired from all of the cutting I did this weekend that by the time I got to finishing my wreath I was literally picking up scraps from my sewing room FLOOR!!! See the VERY scrappy burlap flowers and bow...from the floor!! And my ghost?? An old dryer sheet that somehow ended up in my sewing room...not sure how or when since I've been using the Downy Dryer Bar for like 8 months now!!! So I am happy with it...I wanted it to me minimal since I plan on taking everything off and making it into a Fall Wreath as soon as Halloween is over!!

Now the one I did for my Momma....NOT minimal...

Lots of tulle and some ribbons!! I think it looks like a big ol' piece of candy!! HA!

Well, still lots to do, so I will leave you now!! Back later with completed costumes...hopefully!! :) And LOTS of Nursery Rhyme Day things to show you!! Until later...

Orders Filled!!

2011-10-14T11:14:00.002-05:00

While my giveaway was going on...I was busy finishing up some orders. And since then, I've managed to pick up a few more! WHEW!! I am so grateful for the extra income, but it sure makes me SUPER BUSY!! This week has been one of the busiest by far! And that is with NO SEWING projects involved! Between TWO field trips, one Dr. appointment, preparing and having my first GS Daisy meeting, and preparing for my month to do a craft with my daughter's GS Junior Troop...I have been on-the-go EVERY day!! So today I have vowed to stay home in my PJs ALL DAY!!! Not that I am not still busy...finishing up the Junior Troop's craft preparations, a birthday hat order, a banner for my Kindergarten teacher's upcoming Nursery Rhyme day, some Nursery Rhyme character cut outs for my Symposium Tent...that my Kindergarten teacher will also use for props, and LAUNDRY!! Lots and LOTS of LAUNDRY...GAH!! I feel a few more gray hairs growing in as.I.type!!

Anyway, enough with all my yanh-yanhing!! On with the orders I've manage to complete...

One of my Big Boy's best friends became a proud Poppa at the end of last month, and my son was named "Godfather". He placed this order at the last minute...what? OF COURSE I made him pay me!! My time is money...even for my children...HA! But believe me, he got a HUGE discount! ;)

This is a 30" x 30" palette "quilt" with no batting, but a fleece backing. The baby's name and birth date were quickly machine embroidered...when I got the information! I really like how the paw prints from the fleece show through to the front!

I added a little initial applique burp cloth...for no charge! The daddy was sooo excited about his new little baby's gift, that he called to thank me. He told me he had never had anything personalized before and how much it meant to have his son's birth date on this keepsake. So sweet, that boy!! He will be a great dad!

Next up, my neighbor's friend was visiting when I was showing off the Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend pillow. Her family is adopting a 2 yo girl and she was busy decorating her bedroom, but couldn't find pillows to match the bedding set she picked out. She asked if I would make some...of course I would!! She ran to the fabric store and came back with some satin and trim...

The chocolate tulle was my contribution.

I know these pictures are horrible...I couldn't get the colors right!! These are pillow covers with envelope closures that fit an 18" x 18" pillow. I think they are sooooo fancy!! Satin is such a tricky fabric...I've got to get better at sewing with it!! Any suggestions? Because my next order had a few oops moments...

This little Flapper style dress is for one of Ms. Priss' friends. She is in a Theater group, and a had mini production to put on. I used a pre-made Halloween costume I picked up last year on clearance as a template, but raised the waist to make it shorter. I want to do that to the costume also...if Ms. Priss would let me!! It just looks cuter! Anyway, I stitched and serged the side seams of this satin dress, but the seams pulled in some places and I had to do an emergency "fixya" a day before her show. Is there something I missed with the seam? Some special stitch? You know I'd rather have someone tell me...then to look it up in one of my MANY sewing books...or the internet!! Lazy, huh? :) I had fun sewing on the fringe, believe it or not!! AND I was so impressed with myself for actually getting them STRAIGHT!! HA! The headband is some 1" sequined trim sewn on black 1" elastic. I LOVE how the feather came out. My friend Kathy spent about 20 minutes "curling" it so it would curve just above her head...like a hat!! So cool!! For those of you like me who might not know this...you "curl" a feather just like you "curl" a ribbon. By gently using scissors and scraping down the quill, the feather will miraculously begin to curl!! But you have to be EXTREMELY gentle, or else risk hacking the feather right off...that's why it took her 20 minutes!!

My last order was placed almost 2 months ago!!! Gotta love customers who TRULY understand how CRAZY your life really is...thanks Jackie!! She is one of my family's oldest friends and soooo supportive of me!! Every time she sees me or calls me, she lifts me UP with her "Girl, you can do ANYthing!!" attitude!! LOVE her! So, when I made the ruffled aprons for her daughters, she immediately placed an order for one to give as a birthday gift.

She wanted a strawberry one similar to the one I made for her daughter, but I thought I would change it up a little. I LOVE these colors!!

This is the fourth ruffled apron I've made, and yet again...used a different method. I am trying to find one that works best, and has the most "completed" look on the reverse side. This one by far is the best. Maybe I'll take photos of the next one I make and attempt a little tutorial?? We'll see. Well, I have to get to my LIST of things to do...until later...

My Memories Suite Digital Scrapbook WINNER!!

2011-10-10T00:53:00.003-05:00

Thank you to all that came by and entered this giveaway!! And thank you to all of my friends who responded to my SOS!! I appreciate you!!

And now for the WINNER!!!

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:4Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Congratulations Stephanie!! How appropriate for a Scrapbooking blogger to be the winner!! I will email you Monday afternoon with instructions on how to download the software!!

Thanks again to everyone who participated, and for those of you who stopped by! :) I'll be back with some things I've been working on later. Monday is the Kindergarteners' trip to the Fire Station...so it will be after that! :D Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!! Until later...

My Memories Digital Scrapbooking Software: Review and GIVEAWAY!!

2011-10-02T22:45:00.007-05:00

Hello Everyone!! I am really excited about this post!! It is not very often that I get asked to review a product, so when I was contacted by My Memories it took me a couple of days to get over the SHOCK before I even responded!! I mean someone wanted to GIVE me something...for FREE...and then wanted my opinion about it...and then I get to GIVE one of you something...for FREE??!!! How CRAZY is that?? As you can tell, I am still a little in shock! HA!

So as not to disappoint...let's get to it!

My Memories Suite Digital Scrapbooking Software

I gotta tell ya...I really like this program!! It is very user friendly and so much fun! I've spent the last WEEK playing around with different papers, shapes, and embellishments! I tend to be a little conservative and have a hard time color coordinating, but with this program I found myself overcoming my fear of OVER embellishing! It is just THAT much fun to use!! And when I got confused or overwhelmed by just HOW MUCH stuff this software could do...I just headed to the My Memories Blog where there are a series of VIDEO tutorials that walk you through it step-by-step!! Don't like video tutorial...that's ok, because they also have PDF tutorials outlining the same thing!!

So, before I show you how much fun I had using the My Memories Suite software, I must explain to some of you who may be visiting for the first time...I don't put personal photos of my children on my blog. You may be asking yourself, "so how is she going to show us some examples of this digital scrapbooking software then?" EXCELLENT question...one that I wondered to myself when I was contacted to do this review!! Well, since my blog is all about my SEWING life...THAT is what my review must be about!

What if you were to use the My Memories Suite software to promote your BUSINESS? Flyers for upcoming Craft Fairs...

Something to hand out to local businesses so they can see what products you offer that they may be interested in selling...

Beautiful photo layouts of your handmade products that you can display on your Facebook page or to send out emails! I told you I had A LOT of fun with this software!! :D This one, I think is a stroke of GENIUS...maybe....

Simply print, and attach to a magnetic sheet to give to potential customers!! And lastly, I don't know about you, but when I ordered my business cards from Vista Print...the layouts were somewhat lacking!! Or, because there were only a limited amount of designs that deal with sewing and crafting you are sure to end up with the same as someone else. Now, I can upload my own design to their site and have a unique and original business card...

So what do you think? Too much FUN??!! Now, I'm not going to give you all of the specs and selling points for the software...you can read all about it HERE. But I will give you a quick run down of my pros and cons.

PROS: FUN!! to use, LOTS of papers, shapes, and embellishments already loaded on the program, LOTS of FREE downloads in the My Memories Shop, they are always adding new FREE kits or papers in the Shop also...if they are not FREE then there are always some on SALE for like 99 cents!! And just like in our FABULOUS sewing blogs community there are many generous givers in the Digital Scrapbooking blogs community! I visited a ton of them and got lots more FREE stuff and loads of inspiration! You can easily convert your pages and books to JPEGS, so you can print them ANYWHERE!! Home, Walmart, snapfish, Shutterfly, etc...or you can order Photobooks from My Memories! So EASY!! And you are given lots of choices as to how much resolution to save as, while also adjusting your print image quality.

CONS: There is not much photo editing capability within the software. You can lighten/darken, crop, or eliminate red eye, change to Black & White or Sepia but it is more for a "finished" look, if you know what I mean. For more of a professional look, it is better to use a photo editing program before adding your pictures in. THE biggest Con is that it is a computer disc space EATER!! I mean, we're talking hi-res photos, papers, embellishments...easily ONE page can be in the GBs!! So if you are doing a 15 page Photobook...CHOMP!!! I will be getting my own 2T external harddrive to store all of my Digital Scrapbooking needs!! :) But on the UPside of this, once you convert them to JPEGS the size goes down immensly!!

Ok...so sorry this is getting quite LONG...I'll get to the GIVEAWAY now!!

To Enter: (Sorry, but it's mandatory)

Go to My Memories , TRY to pick your favorite layout, or Digi Pack (I dare ya!)...come back here and comment!! Instant entry :)

*Edited* PLEASE include your email so I will know how to contact you!! Thanks

Now, if you like having options to enter a GAZILLION times...here they are:

Become a FOLLOWER or LIKE any of these

Blog- http://blog.mymemories.com/
Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/pages/MyMemories/140359372717593
Twitter- http://twitter.com/#!/mymemoriessuite

Now, I did like them on Facebook...because when they get to 10,000 SOMEONE will get an iPad2...it could be ME!! I could be 1 in 10,000...and so can you! But, I like the FB page it also has alot of inspiration!

Speaking of Facebook, if we are friends you can see some of the personal Digital Scrapbook pages I did of my kiddos :)

Oh...I almost forgot!!! The My Memories Suite Digital Scrapbooking Software is ONLY $39.97!!! If you don't win this giveaway, but are still interested in buying the program I have an AWESOME Promotion code to give you!! It will get you $10 off of the MMS software AND $10 to use in the Shop!!! Just go to the My Memories website...add the My Memories Suite to your cart and copy/paste this PROMO CODE: STMMMS99372 and you will get it for $29.97 AND have $10 to spend...aren't they AWESOME??!!

The giveaway will run through the week and end Sunday, October 9th 2011 in the evening hours...ya know when the kiddos are in bed and I get to it :D Thanks for participating...I hope my review was helpful!! Good Luck and until later....

Ice Skating Theme Party

2011-09-23T07:51:00.006-05:00

So last week was my first born's 9th birthday!! She has known since last year that she wanted an Ice Skating party, but being ME of course I waited until the last minute to get things ready!! Thankfully with the help of my friend, I was able to get all of the decorations and party favors done on time! :D

The invitations went out a week before the party...but most of the girls and parents knew about it before-hand so don't judge! Anyway, I used my Cricut and the SVG file I found last year for the Roller Skate invitation to make this year's invitation. I tweaked it a little with my Sure Cuts Alot software to change it into an ice skate.

Then glued aluminum foil to the "blade" and added the info and a ribbon "lace". Most were blue to go with the theme, but I forgot to get pictures before Ms. Priss scooped them up to deliver to her friends!

I had gotten some comments last year about the SVG file I used. Here is the link to Paper Therapy...a wonderful blog with a generous giver!! It is a SCAL file...so you must have Sure Cuts Alot to use this file with your Cricut!

The day of the party brought everyone to our house first, so I made this wreath to greet them.

So I've discovered yet ANOTHER use for a Pool Noodle!! I bought a bunch of them from the dollar store...clearanced at 50 cents!!! I just bent it into a circle, stuck a stick from the yard into the holes to "hold" it together, and tied some tulle and ribbon to hold it even more. Hot glue will not work...DUH!! I had one of those moments HA! So I will keep working on a better way and let you know!! This noodle was already light blue, so I just sprayed it with some white spray paint and threw iridescent glitter on it to give it a "snowy" look...then just started adding little embellishments with some plain sewing pins. Pretty cool huh?

My friend Kathy came over one day and helped me make tissue paper flowers...

And then went home and painted a sign...isn't she AWESOME??

I know it is hard to see in the pictures, but I also made a couple of "streamers" using blue and silver Mardi Gras beads. I cut a bunch of ice skates and circles then glued them to the beads, along with some pre-cut glitter snowflakes and pom poms. I also did a quick banner using card stock and scrapbook papers, stringing them together with a ribbon.

The centerpiece for the table was this "tree" I made using a branch from the yard, spray paint, glitter, pom poms, and the cut out ice skates and circles.

I used a big Country Time Lemonade can covered with scrapbook paper for the base. I just threw in a bunch more bead strands to weigh it down, then added tissue paper and tulle to hide them.

For the party favors, all of the girls got a little basket of goodies...

The little plastic baskets were on clearance for 25 cents for THREE!! I used the scraps from the tissue paper flowers for filling and made LOTS of these...

I found a tutorial on YouTube to make tulle flowers...here.

So fun...and the girls LOVED them!! They all wore them when we went to the ice skating rink!

And of course Ms. Priss got a tee for her big day...

And she was the only one who sustained an injury...

Right after we put on our skates, she was sitting on the floor and one of her friends skated right over her finger...thankfully the blades weren't sharp!! With some ice and kisses she was all better and on the ice soon after!! A happy time was had by all!!

Now that it is over, I have some orders I am working on, so I will be back soon to share more! :) Until later...

Fun Pillows and Headbands

2011-09-12T08:49:00.008-05:00

We've had some birthday parties and free time...can you believe it?? So I worked on some fun things! I am currently working on a Flapper-style fringe dress for one of Ms. Priss' friends, so I have loads of black satin scraps laying around. For this Birthday Girl, who had nothing specific she wanted me to make her, I decided to go Girly!! Inspired by the black satin, I made this "Diamonds Are a Girls Best Friend" pillow for her totally pink and girly room.

The back of the pillow is a silky soft fabric that I've used for other pillows and a nap map! I think it is just perfect for a 10 year old girl! :D

For the other Birthday Girl, who DID have something specific in mind, I made this My Little Pony inspired pillow.

Her favorite MLP is Rainbow Dash, so I googled it...not knowing much about MLP and found a free SVG file for my Cricut!! It cut out the paper "pattern" and I used that to cut the fabric! I used flannel for the pony's body, and rainbow fleece scraps for the mane and tail. I used fabric paints for the eye, rainbow emblem, and little heart on the front leg. The pillow is a lime green fleece, with a sheer rainbow ribbon on the end for fun!! It was a little work, but I am happy with how it came out...especially because when I was told the request, I had NO idea how to make it!!

I did this quick headband for her also...

And just kept making them...

The above headband was made using the ruffles I took off of The Middle Child's red shirt, before I added the UL applique.

I found this really cool blog that had such adorable bow and headband tutorials....and made these!! Of course, theirs are much cuter...but my girls and their friends were happy with mine! ;)

These are on little clips. The one in the middle was made by Ms. Priss using Kimara and Michelle's awesome pattern...check out Wee Folk Art for more inspiration with felt!! She is also running a newbie knitting lesson series right now, if you are interested!!

And lastly, Ms. Priss' teacher asked that "since you sew..." could I make her a valence for the window in her class room. How can I resist when she handed me a piece of fabric?? I provided the tulle!

Every 2 years our Teachers come up with a learning theme. This cycle's theme is WILD about Learning, and all of the teachers decorated their classrooms and hallways with fun animal prints, trees and vines, and lots of cute animals. I wanted the valence to be versatile and decided to make it reversible instead of simply adding a liner.

Fleur de Lis are ALWAYS popular in Louisiana!! :)

Well, that is all for now! Hope your school year has started off great!! Until later...

More Back-to-School Items

2011-09-06T09:06:00.006-05:00

I hope you all had a nice relaxing Labor Day! Our plans for the beach were cancelled due to Tropical Storm Lee...UGH!! Although my Momma and siblings were die-hard beach go-ers, I opted to not make that trip! So instead I stayed home and watched the Star Wars marathon on Spike TV...YAY!!! Love Star Wars!!

Anyway, now that my children are back in school I finally have time to post some of the items I completed! I FINALLY tried Made's tutorial on fusing shopping bags! I wanted to do it for a teacher's bag at the end of last school year, but never got around to it! Thankfully, I did start saving up a lot of plastic bags! And when I saw what Alexis over at Made By Lex did with her fused bags, I knew it was time to gather my collection! I give you my adaptation of The Recycled Lunch Tote...

Instead of just plain white, I had several colored bags! So I opted to not do too much embellishing, other than their names.

The fusing was a little tricky, and mine wasn't as smooth as theirs...but I kind of like the "crinkled" look. I just fused, cut into squares and rectangles, then serged. I did go back with my sewing machine to reinforce my seams. I know that many of you will sew first, then serge...but I like to use my serger first, not sure why! I used heavy duty stick-on Velcro for the closure. It adhered well, but make sure if you use them to put them where you want them...they bond quickly and you DO NOT want to have to try to remove them!!!

The yellow one is bigger than the blue one...not as many blue bags!! But I did figure out that since you are using so many "layers" to fuse, it will work just as well to put plain white bags in the middle layers with the colors on the outer layers. This way you will have more "yardage" of colored bags! Oh, for the names...I used scrap fabric to cut the letters then used clear contact paper to cover/ protect them. I did a tight zigzag to stitch it to the tote! So far it is working out pretty good, and the letters are staying clean and dry! Although I know these totes aren't very insulated, I really like re-using something that would otherwise end up in the trash. Another good recycled project is using cereal boxes for fun place mats!

I did these Back-to-School place mats for the kids. I used the aforementioned cereal boxes, scrapbook paper, and contact paper...patterned and clear! Cute, huh?

When The Boy got his school tote bag I knew EXACTLY what I was going to put on it...

The machine embroidered font is BONES...love it!! I used my Cricut to cut out some dinosaur shapes on paper, then used them to cut felt...my Cricut won't cut felt...no matter HOW HARD I try!! :( Then I just hand stitched them to the bag with crochet thread! He LOVES it!! The camo ribbon added just a little more color...without being too girly! ;)

Okay...so I think secretly, I am an OVER-achiever...is that even possible when you are as in-exact and as FAR away from being a perfectionist as I am??!! I just don't understand WHY I would poke my hand up for being my kindergartner's ROOM MOM!! I mean last year I was CO-room mom, but that was third grade...they don't do anything in third grade!! But in Kindergarten there are TONS of things that need to be done all.year.long!! And on TOP of that...I said yes to my friend Kathy when she said, "hey, let's do a TENT for Symposium this year"!!!!! Ya'll I seriously think I am OUT OF MY MIND!!! See what happens when I get a wee bit of freedom? I mean, the Boy is only in school for a couple of hours on Tuesdays and Thursday...but here I am going CRAZY!! :)

Anyway...my Room Mom duties have already begun, pretty easy stuff so far. But on first encounter with the teacher I get, "so...I hear you are kinda crafty?" So I was given the task of decorating her Popcorn Box. The PTC sells popcorn one Friday a month, and the teachers have cardboard boxes to carry all of the orders to their classrooms. It has seem in the recent years to become a "thing" to decorate their boxes. My friend Kathy is an AWESOME artist and painter!! She did the boxes for two of her daughter's teachers...good stuff!! I knew there would be NO WAY that I could draw book characters like Skippy Jon Jones, Ramona, or Alice in Wonderland...so I had to stick with what I know...fabric and felt!!

I really didn't have a CLUE what to do on her box, but since they teach the Season's in Kindergarten and there are four I chose that! A Season for every side of the box. The one above is Spring. I know the writing is hard to see, but it says "Popcorn is always in Season"! I machine embroidered her last name in the kites.

Here is Summer..I know my flag is backwards, please forgive!

The clouds are polyfil, and the beach is sandpaper.

Fall is my favorite...

And lastly, Winter...

I was really happy with how it came out. It took me about two good days to get everything on, then another to spray on a clear Mod Podge to protect it.

Oh...I also added a grosgrain strap for easy carrying.

Hopefully everything stays on...we'll find out in a couple of weeks when the first Popcorn Day rolls around! :)

So I know this post is sooooo long, just one more thing before I go. Friday was "Paint the Town Red" Day to honor our local college's first football game. I did a shirt for Ms. Priss last year, so I just needed one for The Middle Child.

So now I'm done!! Thanks for hanging around until the end ;) One more shout out to my Daddy...yesterday was his birthday!! Hope you had a good one Daddy, we'll see ya soon!!! Until later...

LSU Crib Set Order

2011-09-01T09:04:00.004-05:00

Well, I think I am happy with how the ol' blog is looking...so it is no longer under construction. :D

So here is the order I got from someone who lives in Baton Rouge!! She and her husband drove all the way here to Lafayette to pick it up...so sweet!! They saved me from the Post Office...YAY!!!

This was my first attempt at a crib bumper, and it was somewhat challenging! But in the end, I was pretty happy with it...and so was the expecting Momma! I used foam padding instead of batting to make sure it was good and firm. I used the tutorial, so generously offered at Craft Hours, but obviously not patchwork...it was work enough with just a solid piece of fabric, whew!! And thankfully, this is what my customer preferred. Anyway, I was able to get through it and think the next time will be easier. Isn't that always the way?

The quilt is just 6" squares sewn up with my signature wonkiness *ahem*, with some machine embroidery sprinkled around on the solid pieces. The paw print squares are fleece, and the backing is a solid flannel. It ended up measuring approximately 40" x 60", which is the perfect fit for when the crib gets converted to the toddler-sized daybed.

And there you have it, enough cuteness to turn any baby into an instant FAN!!! Geaux Tigers!!

I am very humbled when someone happens upon my blog and likes what they see enough to place an order with me! Thank you so much Dawn for being patient with my 50 questions and also for the time line you gave me to complete it! :) As most of my sewing friends know, starting and completing projects with small children is a task within itself. Add in the fabric and materials collecting and the process and labor itself...whew, miracles are happening!! ;) It makes me really appreciate the patience I receive from customers AND my family!

Anyway...if someone else is "happening" on my blog someday and is interested in placing an order, this crib set with LSU team fabric and specialized monogramming is priced at $200. It comes with bumper, skirt, and an approximate 40" x 60" quilt. Fabrics will vary with availability, but we can talk about that later....hence the previously quoted "patient with my 50 questions"!! :D

Hope you all have a safe and fun-filled Labor Day weekend, I am off to the beach!! Until later...

Blog...under Construction!!

2011-08-30T16:59:00.004-05:00

Sorry for the craziness going on...I decided to make a change, but of course, have NO IDEA what I am doing!! So please bear with me over the next couple of days while I try to figure out what it is I am DOING!! :D Here are some back to school backpacks I monogrammed for your viewing pleasure...hope it works!!

All suggestions and HELP working out this new look is welcomed!! :) I also broke down and got one of those white boards so maybe my picture-taking skills will improve too!! Amazing what $2 will do for you! HA!

Now that all of my kiddos are back in school....Ms. Priss, grade 4; The Middle Child, Kindergarten; and The Boy is in a two day Pre-K 3 program...YAY!!

Until later...

Girl's Ruffled Aprons and More Gifts

2011-08-19T08:56:00.005-05:00

So after a super long absence....I'm BACK!! I do have a good excuse for being gone for so long....BUSY LIFE!! I'm not sure how the rest of you do it, but I just can't seem to keep up with my blogging while running after three children, cleaning house, doing laundry, grocery-getting, dog training, dinner making, SEWING, etc... you get the picture, right? I am just in awe of those super bloggers who manage to do it all, AND make their blog look neat and orderly!! Anyway, I have been sewing and managing to keep my sewing room neat. :D

I had a couple more birthday gifts to make before school started, so I wracked my brains...then went blog hopping. I found a couple of ideas and got to work. First up, ruffled aprons!

Aren't these the cutest things EVER??!! I spied one over on Wildflowers & Whimsy and followed the link to an Etsy shop for the pattern. I really didn't have much time to buy the pattern, so I set out to figure it out on my own...graph paper and all!! I think they came out ok, but a little tricky...so I might end up getting the pattern anyway!

I also did this one for my niece, which was the first one I made. The colors matched her birthday party theme.

I did fabric straps for this one, but for the strawberry and cherry one...I used grosgrain ribbon. Of course they were loved by all... I foresee doing alot of these for family and friends!

Next up was a gift for my nephew whose birthday was in April....I know, I am terrible!!

I think he wanted more of a sleeve, but I thought the handles would come in...handy! :D I used matching fleece for the inside padding, thought I had a picture of that...oops!

Then a tutorial I've been wanting to try all summer, the Lunch Money Cuff from A Lemon Squeezy Home.

This was for a friend of Ms. Priss! It fit her perfectly, thankfully...next time I'll make it bigger! Overall...awesome tutorial and a pretty easy sew. Her folks were surprising her with a last minute trip to Disney World, so I threw this in too.

Well, that is all for now!! Next up will be all of the back-to-school monogramming, and projects!!! I also finished the order for an LSU crib set...YAY!!! I'll be getting it to the expecting mother today. Now that THAT is done, I can start on all of the things I've been wanting to do!! Oh, and I already got an order for another ruffled apron :) Until later...

Sewing Room Make Over!!

2011-07-25T12:45:00.004-05:00

Hello everyone!! Hope your Summer is going well...when does school start again??! ;) I am just popping in to let you know that I haven't been too lazy lately. My good...make that AWESOME friend, Kathy "moved in" last week and wouldn't leave until my sewing room looked like THIS!!!

Our 23 yo moved out and left this HUGE corner desk!! It fits all of my machines beautifully! The hutch is not the one that came with the desk, but it fit better!!

Some of my fabric neatly rolled and stored....YAY!!

AND....I have a cutting table!!! I knew it was in this room, someWHERE!! HA! Oh, if you look against the far wall you can see the original hutch! It is that BIG, that is why I couldn't put it on the desk! :) But it fit perfectly in that spot and holds all kinds of little trims and things!!

Well, that's all...just wanted to show off my "new" sewing space!! I got an order for an LSU crib set from a first time Momma in Baton Rouge!! So I am busy, busy!! Until later...

Summer Lovin'....Having a Blast!

2011-07-13T08:57:00.006-05:00

Did I ever mention that July is the MONTH of Birthdays around here? Ok...not the MONTH, but for sure the WEEK!! :) Well, I guess if I am to be accurate, I must start the last week of June! So here goes: my baby sister 6/24, my cousin 6/26...we also just added a new bundle of joy through my SIL's sister on the 26th (congrats girl), my BFF 6/27, my OLDER sister 7/3, my niece also 7/3, my Middle Child 7/4 hence the patriotic bday banner above, one of our oldest family friends 7/5, my sweet Momma 7/6, my cousin's daughter 7/7...which also happens to be my awesome man's and mine anniversary, 10 YEARS...YAY!! See...now how is one LAZY momma supposed to keep up with all of those birthdays and events???!!! Lots of rain checks, and "I'll have them for you soons!!" obviously!! HA!

So where to begin....oh, of COURSE. My sassy Middle Child turned FIVE!!!

I first saw a pair of cuffed bloomers over at No Big Dill, do you read that one? She is soooo talented, and with FIVE girls and one on the way HOW on EARTH does she manage to do everything she does???!! Anyway, I thought they were so cute that I knew that is what I wanted to do for my Birthday girl!! The pattern for the bloomers are from Clever Charl0tte, but of course I had no time to order and wait for a pattern and I set out to "figure them out" on my own! Not as cute as the pattern, but sweet enough for me!!

And about the banner....it is pretty pitiful of me for JUST getting around to doing this...I mean, she turned FIVE!!! HA! Burlap, fabric scraps (right AND wrong sides of a deco weight woven), and felt!!

Of course being the 4th of July, the siblings needed outfits also...

Flat-front shorts for The Boy...tutorial courtesy of Dana at MADE, don't know why I haven't tried that one before.....AWESOME!!! And they fit like a dream!!!

And for Ms. Priss...sorry, this is the only photo from the day with the outfit on! As you can see, she just threw it on over her swim suit!! (oh...and don't you LOVE the popsicle in her mouth, smoke bombs in her hand, and she is shoving a box of firecrackers in her pocket...PRICELESS!!)

The skirt is pair of old worn out jeans from my awesome man!! It was supposed to be a skirt for me, but I got a little rip-happy and tore the bottom to short!!! So as not to waste, I figured out how to make it fit Ms. Priss. Sorry, no pictures but try to imagine....cut down side seams in a "V" like pattern about 2 inches, the back waistband happened to be sewn like a casing so I fed about 10" of elastic through and stitched in place. Then I used a ladder stitch to sew up the cut side seams. It fit pretty good, but next time I will probably go ahead and cut about 2 inches away from both side seams all the way down, it would make the skirt less flared! I added a couple of hearts with the coordinating fabrics on the front and back of the skirt, and also the tee shirt to snazz it up!! Hope you all had a Happy 4th!!

So for Father's Day, or as my Daddy would say...The THIRD most HOLIEST of all Holidays, after Easter and Christmas of course... I made him another Poppie tee!

I know it is hard to see, and I most definitely should have used a solid fabric, but it says Poppie's Cowpokes on the red horseshoe fabric!! Of course I moved the pocket down to where my Daddy likes it!! :)

And for my Momma, an embellished Cover-up!

They're supposed to be flip flops...can you tell?

I have a flip flop machine applique for my Embroidery machine that would have probably looked much neater....but I wanted to try the hand-cut frayed look...don't worry, she'll let me know how it works out!! ;)

I should stop this post now...I know it is getting to be SUPER long, but I do have a few more items to share!! I am also in the process of shoveling out my sewing room and re-organizing it...yet AGAIN!! But I just acquired a pretty cool desk from our 23 yo who just moved OUT!!!! YAYAYAYAYAY!!!! Anyway before I get penalized for excessive celebration...I think I WILL end this post and HOPE that I will be back in a couple of days to finish sharing what I've been doing this summer...besides being LAZY!!! ;D Until later...

Beginning of Summer = Lazy Days

2011-06-13T21:31:00.005-05:00

After the crazy comes the calm!! Just popping in to let you know that we have started our Summer off with some eXtremely lazy days!! :D The girls and I joined our Library's Summer Reading Program...so that is what we've been doing. Lounging around and reading books in our jammies.....BLISS!!

Ms. Priss had a Girl Scout camp last week so I made a few things for her...but in my state of laziness, only took a picture of her cape.

The theme for her week at Camp was "Super Heroes". She picked out the colors and fabric, then I just cut a shield and letter "I" free hand. Quick, easy...done! I also made her a new "sit upon" which is basically a pillow with a handle...sorry, no picture. While she was at camp, The Middle Child was at my folks, so it was just me and The Boy lounging around reading and watching movies. This week they are all back home and it is a little more hectic and loud, but we have a Zoo trip planned, then back to the Library to get more books!! I also have some birthday and Father's day things that need to be made, so I guess I will saunter into my sewing room at some point....see, LAZY!!

But, I was feeling a little guilty at the end of the school year, having made something for all of the teachers and leaving out our poor forgotten bus driver, so I whipped this up the last day of school so Ms. Priss could run back on the bus and give it to him.

Just a wonky little free hand cut bus banner for him to hang by his seat.

So...back to my lazy lounging reading fest....hope ya'll are having a "SUPER" summer! :D

Until later...

Spring Events have taken OVER!!!

2011-05-25T08:25:00.008-05:00

Today is the last day of school for Ms. Priss....YAY?? Although I love the lazy Summer days of not having to do much and NO SCHEDULE, being cooped up with THREE kiddos all day/every day can sometimes be trying!!! But with the way I have been running this past MONTH, days of doing nothing will be a welcomed change!! :D And I just want to say "Thanks" in advance to my awesome folks, who will be taking my children from time to time this Summer...it HELPS!!

So what Spring Events have taken over? Well, I have officially "retired" from Girl Scout Troop 043!! We will have new Leaders taking on all of the responsibilities...and I CAN'T wait!! We had our last meeting/ Pizza Party at my house last Friday! 22 girls and some Mommas = a whole lotta chaos and FUN!! I had about 9 of the 3rd graders sleep over as a last hurrah...ummm...fun? Let's just say it was alot like Survivor...alliances were made, then came the betrayal!! If 8 and 9 yo girls are like this...HOW will I handle the teen aged years?? GAH!! But we ended up all friends, and everyone went home happy!!

Sunday was our Awards/Bridging Ceremony, and I was the MC so I had to write a little speech...then actually speak!! Everyone said I did ok...but I know how nervous I was...slip ups and fumbles were involved!! I was also in charge of decorations, that was the fun part. Thank goodness for Dana over at MADE!! She just knows how to put everything together...then shows you how to do it!! :) Ruffled streamers anyone...?

My girls had a fun time ruffling the crepe paper!! It was good practice for learning to stitch a straight line...and because it was 69 cent crepe paper, I didn't stress too much if they messed up!! ;) Basically we just overlapped two colors of rolled crepe paper, put the settings on the longest stitch, turned the tension way up to the tightest setting, ran a straight stitch....and viola!!

The Bridging Ceremony is when a Girl Scout officially moves from one age level to another. All Bridging Patches are some sort of Rainbow, so that is what I went with to decorate our Bridge.

Our Girl Scout office misplaced its Bridge, and couldn't find it in time, so we had to use the Boy Scouts' Bridge. It was nice, but no hand rails for me to hang the Rainbow on...so I had to get creative....kinda cute, huh? Thankfully, it didn't fall down during the ceremony! :D

With the left over crepe paper, I ruffled one color and made flowers.

You know me and my banners! After ruffling the crepe paper, I shaped it into a flower, then glued it to a paper bag. I cut out circles using fancy-edged scissors, then stitched it on some jute twine. Simple, but pretty!

Another simple, pretty, and best of all...CHEAP decoration was giant tissue paper flowers!

These were hung on the backdrop behind the stage, along with the banner!

So as I said...I am officially retired from Assistant Troop Leader, and so is our actual Troop Leader! She has been our Leader since we began 3 years ago as a Daisy Troop, so I wanted to do something extra nice for her.

Of course we all teared up when I gave it too her...although it is not Good-Bye, because her daughter is still in the Troop! :) I put a pretty ribbon on it, just in case she wanted to hang it.

The badges, patches, and pins are all mixed, representing the Daisy and Brownie Troop she led! And with The Middle Child starting Kindergarten in the Fall, I have a feeling that I may have to step up and lead her Daisy Troop, if no other mom does...so don't feel sad for me!! HA!

Ok...since it is Ms. Priss' last day of school, I FINALLY decided on what to make for her Teacher.

It is the Everything Tote from Heather Ross's Weekend Sewing!!! This is the first time I've made this...LOVE IT!!! I will be making one for me...hopefully soon!! Here's the inside...

Very easy to put together. It takes a 1/2 yard of two different fabrics, depending on what you line it with...but WOW!! It is HUGE and carries nicely. I know, I am behind on the Weekend Sewing projects...I've had the book for over a year!! Better late than never, right!!??

So now that GS and the school year is done...I'm free!! Yeah, right. I OWE!! I've missed a couple of birthdays, so I have a few projects that are screaming at me!! First and foremost, I have to CLEAN my sewing room...again!! I don't even want to be in there!! I pulled out one of my sewing machines and sewed on the craft table in the recently redone front room, because it is NICER in there! So neat, and clutter free!! So, that is what I will be doing until you hear from me again...cleaning!! UGH!! Until later...

Dresses, Pillows, and a Room Change

2011-05-17T07:25:00.006-05:00

Hello...I'm back!! I know, it took me long enough huh? It seems that my Daddy isn't the only impatient family member I've got...my AWESOME SIL came for a quick visit this past weekend, and she let me have it for not updating my blog fast enough!! So I decided to squeeze in a post just for you Kathi!! xo

So, remember back in February when the wonderfully sweet Tammie invited me to share a tutorial with her readers? Well look what she sent me for my effort...

Sweet, right?? Thanks girl!! Love the earrings!!

Speaking of my sweet friends!! Have you been to visit Kindershop lately? WOW!! That girl is busy...and yet, still manages to post more often than me!! HA!! Anyway, you should definitely go for a visit...she has AWESOME tutorials!! Like this one...

The tutorial is so well written and easy to follow!! I had a little trouble with the construction of the yoke, but that had more to do with my unwillingness to use pins...UGH!! AND once I started cutting, I realized I didn't have enough fabric for the back of the dress...so I just worked with what I had.

I think it came out ok...even if it is a little "dress of many colors" like! :D So I decided that one was not enough, after all Beatrix has to do EVERYTHING in twos!

This one is for Ms. Priss. The pattern is a good size 5t or so, and with a little bit of extra finagaling (real word!) I was able to get a size 8/10 from it!! awesome. I made little matchy headbands for them to wear with the dresses, but can't find a picture. I'm sure we will be seeing these dresses again...the size will last a couple of Easters...YAY!!

So once Easter was over and the kiddos were left at my folks for the week, I went home and got to WORK!!

With the help of my 23 yo, I was able to move all of the furniture (including our piano!!) out of the room and rip up the carpet, which was DE-sgustin!! Thankfully, the garbage was going out that night, and it was actually picked up...YAY!! The prep work on the concrete was the hardest, and most time consuming!! I had to clean them really good! I also had to scrape up paint and caulk spills and fill a couple of cracks. Then I had to go back after it was all dry and scrape the excess concrete filler, sand it, then clean it again!! Waiting for it to dry took a day, then I was ready to spray the acid etching stain on. I used a plain ole all plastic garden sprayer, because if you use a sprayer with metal parts, the acid will damage it and cause it to gunk up! Once the acid stain was on, I was waiting again. Then I had to neutralize it with baking soda and water, scrub it, rinse it, wait for it to dry...again, then RINSE it again!! You have to do these "tests" to make sure all of the stain residue is up before you can apply the sealer. Well, I had to rinse it a whopping FOUR times, THEN go over it with some towels to make sure I got ALL of the residue up. Thankfully, I had a wet vac to help the drying times or I wouldn't have been able to finish it before the children returned!! After I was satisfied that all of the residue was up, I started to apply the sealant! I used an outdoor sealer, because the indoor option was a two-part Epoxy mix...I wasn't ABOUT to mess with that!! I just made sure there was adequate ventilation and applied one coat with a roller brush. I probably should have applied two coats, but 1) I only had enough for one coat, and B) after I applied it, there were little bubbles that were not drying clear so I didn't want to put a second coat on if I was just going to have to strip it off to fix it!! So here it is...

I am happy with the results...and was soooo tired that it could have come out SUPER crappy and I would have been like, "it looks GREAT!!" HA! So I am thankful that it came out decent, and if next year I have to apply another coat of sealer because only one coat wasn't enough...so be it!!

The floors looked so "fancy" in fact, that I decided to paint the walls...last minute, of course.

This paint is supposed to be a primer/paint combo that should have only taken one coat, but as you can see...it should have had two!! Oh well, rustic floors...rustic walls!! HA!!

Anyway...the kiddos came home and I had other pressing matters. Like, what to make my Momma!! I saw this tutorial featured on Sew Mama Sew! and KNEW that I had to make these for her for Mother's Day!!

I LOVE how they turned out. Now, originally I tried the old "trace my kids head on wall with a lamp shining on them"...didn't work well. THEN I tried to have them lay on the floor, head on a piece of paper...didn't work either. FINALLY I found a tutorial that explained how to take a photo and using Photoshop making a silhouette out of it...BINGO!! Worked like a charm! :) Sorry, I can't find the exact tutorial I used...it was on my other computer. But if you Google Photoshop tutorials, there are a TON out there...who knew ;)

So, that is all for now. The Middle Child officially graduated from Pre-K, so she is done for the year...next up KINDERGARTEN!! I know, so FAST!! The Boy will start Pre-K 3 in the Fall, if I can get him potty-trained in time...almost there!! He is no longer REFUSING, now I just have to be more consistent and it will be smooth sailing. Ms. Priss has about a week left before she is out for the Summer, so we've been busy with end of year things and will be having our Girl Scout Award/ Bridging ceremony this Sunday. Friday will be our last meeting and pizza party in our home, so I've got to get cleaning!! :) And the third grade class had their annual field trip to our awesome State Capital!!

Hope your school year is winding down smoothly!! Until later...

Hello? Hey....it's been a while...

2011-04-21T09:19:00.011-05:00

It seems the closer we get to the end of the school year, the busier it gets!! I know that I have been the BIGGEST slacker poster/visitor/commenter lately, and I am so sorry! And I would totally understand if ya'll delete me off of your Reader...but then you would miss me, so I guess you just have to accept me....flaws and all! :)

So...what has been keeping me away from the computer lately...?

California...just accept that you will NEVER win the battle of the Berries!!

Yep...it is that time of year again!! We went to the Strawberry Festival in my awesome hometown, Ponchatoula!! I don't know what it is about the soil in Tangipahoa Parish, but they grow the BEST strawberries, period...the end. I came back to Lafayette with FIVE flats...YUM!

Anyway, in honor of the festival and in appreciation of my cousin and her wonderful husband for hosting a fun and relaxing gathering at their home every year, I made this for them.

Can you tell it is burlap? Awesome, right? I used a little spray starch on the green stems to make sure they "stood up" and didn't droop once the banner was hanging...it actually worked!!

The Middle Child's Overalls redo got a little strawberry applique makeover...

And The Boy sported this really fun wagon applique! It seems that the wagon has taken over the boy applique trend, instead of the pick-up truck! I used my Embird software to combine the wagon app with a couple of strawberries!!

For Ms. Priss I attempted an argyle look...not sure if it came out right! I used a piece of matching denim from these pants that were made for the Disney trip to display a cute strawberry applique. Some scrap pieces of a knit fabric were used for the diamond shapes...what do you think?

mmmm....strawberries!

Ok...moving on...I really thought the strawberry banner was inspirational and decided to keep the theme going for these Easter Banners!! One for The Middle Child's teacher....

...and one for me! The ingredients for these cuties are orange burlap, craft felt in assorted colors, scrap fabric pieces for lettering, green bias tape (made or bought), and scrap pieces of various shades of green tulle! Oh and the Teacher's received some ribbon-love on the ends, where I left mine plain.

And if you are interested, I made the string eggs last year using a tutorial from The Crafty Crow...which I can't find now, but I googled it and THIS one works just as well! :) I used Elmer's washable school glue...it worked fine, and was easy to clean the kids after :)

There have also been various creations made for school functions. The Middle Child had Black and White Day last Monday, so of course in true ME fashion, I was busy Sunday whipping this up!

And LOOK...it is reversible so it is like TWO dresses at once!!

I used these sweet ladybug buttons to add a bit of color! Oh, and I KNOW that my pockets are not straight...thanks for noticing! HA!

Ms. Priss had a Book Character parade yesterday. Can you guess whose Biography she chose to base her character on?

The bonnet was made using this SO EASY tutorial!! In case you are interested!

And like I needed another one...

This beauty was my Awesome Man's mother's!! Wasn't nice of his ex to finally give it back? It works beautifully!! The Middle Child has already tried it out and the knee presser lever is a hit!! :)

I hope you all have a nice Easter!! Hopefully I will be back in a more timely manner to show off the rest of what I've been up to!! My AWESOME parents have so generously offered to keep all THREE of my babies next week during Spring Break so I can pull up carpet and try my hand at some concrete floor staining, DIY style...wish me luck!! Oh, and ALL suggestions on this undertaking will be GREATLY appreciated!! Until later...

All About The Mickey

2011-03-23T09:38:00.006-05:00

Well, we've been back from our Disney World vacation for about two weeks now, so I guess you've waited long enough to see what has been keeping me so silent here on my blog! Sorry it has taken me this long to update, but since we've been back I've had to clean, do LOTS of laundry, sell Girl Scout cookies then settle up our accounts and deposit LOADS of money...unfortunately NOT into my bank, HA! and take care of not one BUT two sick kiddos with upper respiratory infections...YUCK!! Everyone is on the mend, I am back to my regular laundry routine, and the final Girl Scout cookies have been sold and settled...so get ready for an EXTREMELY photo heavy post!!! :)

Animal Kingdom:

Everyone got a tiger Mickey including my Momma and two nephews! The lone cheetah Mickey belongs to....GUESS!!!

Ms. Priss was the cheetah in our group, but she had a sweet cousin helping her flaunt the cheetah, girl!! :) All of these were cut on my Cricut Expression then sewn on with my sewing machine! The Middle Child was the only "Minnie" with her purple bow and I was able to get another use out of the tiger/LSU ruffled pants I made last fall!! YAY!!

Speaking of LSU...

I promised my brother a shirt, and Ms. Priss liked it so much she had to have one too!

Couldn't leave out the Saints...

This was a machine applique I designed with my embroidery software by merging about three different designs!! LOVE IT!! I am telling you that there were soooooo many Louisiana families at Disney World. We felt right at home in our LSU and Saints apparel!! This shirt was done for my 9 yo nephew, he was so excited....well as excited as a 9 yo boy can get and still look cool!! ;)

The Middle Child had an outfit for ALL EIGHT DAYS of our trip!! WHEW! But thankfully I was able to use ruffled pants that were already made, and I found a couple of bargains in the clearance bins that just needed to be appliqued or embellished!

The yellow polka-dot pants were $2 at Walmart.

This T-shirt was a size too small which made it very short at her tummy. So I added the polka dot ruffle and viola!! I LOVE the multiple Mickeys!! The gingham ruffled pants were part of her Halloween costume, so they were already done!! Oh, did I mention that I will be adding "action" shots? I ran out of time trying to finish outfits and didn't take pictures before I packed them...so there will be LOTS of action shots to display some of the sewing I did!

Ms. Priss is soooo hard to make pants/shorts for. She has such an odd body type that it gave me FITS trying to get the pants to fit her backside withOUT having too much "crotch" hanging down in the front. Any and ALL suggestions are WELCOME!!! I ended up doing lots of creative cutting and folding/sewing around the waist where the casing for the elastic was!!

The Boy's shirt is just the left over fabric from a Mickey cut out!! I used my machine to sew around the outside square, but the Mickey silhouette was too hard so I ended up using some chunky red embroidery thread and did a running stitch. It is hard to see in this picture, but I really liked the effect!

Oh, and I must tell you that the Autograph Books I made all of the kids were a HIT!! They got loads of compliments from all of the characters that talked, and a couple of thumbs up from the ones that didn't!! And I am happy to report that they all used their backpacks during the whole trip!! YAY!

We had dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table where The Middle Child wore her Cinderella dress that her Grammy and Poppie gave her for Christmas. So I coordinated every one's outfit around her Princess dress. This is for Ms. Priss.

This is a machine embroidery applique. I used clear vinyl to give it the "glass" effect for the slipper, and it's hard to see but it says, "if the shoe fits..." HA!

For The Boy...

The pants I made last Spring, so the shirt was all that was needed. Even Mom and Dad got in on it!

My husband had a TON of shirts from the last company he worked for that were just sitting in a bag in our closet. I used a lot of creative Mickey's to cover the company logo!!

Epcot:

The tie-dyed shirt was $1 at Walmart!!

The Earth Mickey is a combination of machine appliqued circles for the ears, and a Filled stitch machine embroidery design. I did one for my husband too...sorry no photo!

Here are two outfits of The Middle Child's that were $2 a piece from Walmart last Fall.

The tees were screen-printed with a peace and apple design that I covered with Minnie's. You can see the screen print through the green Minnie a little bit.

But it was still a cute outfit!!

Happy (belated) Mardi Gras!!!

For the boys...two of these were for my nephews, the other was for The Boy.

I am sorry to say that I didn't get a good "action" picture of my girls' Mickey's. I could probably do one now, but I haven't had the time!! Maybe it will pop up in my slide show! HA! The yellow fabric in Ms. Priss' pants is denim!! I LOVE it! I found it in the clearance bin at Joann's for $2!! I had enough to do these capri's, and the ruffled shorts that went with the tie-dyed peace Mickey!! SCORE!!

Me and The Husband!! Another "creative" way to cover that old company logo!! My shirt is a tissue tee aka REALLY THIN SHIRT!! So I had to use a BIG Fleur de Lis and a couple of Mickey's to keep myself "covered"!! ;) I really liked the effect!

And last but not least...we couldn't leave the Dinosaur shirt at home...

This was originally a Santa Hat Dino that I cut the Santa Hat off and added a New Year's Eve Party hat then cut that off to give the little fella some Mickey ears!! What will he wear next?? Stay tuned...

WHEW!! that was a very long post with TOO MANY pictures!! Thank you for your time! :) So when all was cut and sewn I ended up doing 38 shirts, and 11 pairs of ruffled pants...and because I am such a procrastinator it was all done in a 2 week time period!! I've got to start earlier next time!!! :) Enjoy your day...Spring is here and we are having GORGEOUS weather! Next up, sewing for Easter!! Until later...

Love...the Crafty Way!

2011-02-13T23:11:00.006-06:00

Just some eye "candy" for you today!! :) Now you know why I've been so busy...still working on things for Disney World, and Mardi Gras is right around the corner!

Love Banner...burlap and vinyl table cloth letters!

These were my Contact Paper crafts featured at crafytammie...

Some hand stitched hearts...

LOVEly hair accessories...

Heart Yo-yo tutorial...here!!

Petti-Tutu tutorial at my local girl's AWESOME blog...Wildflowers & Whimsy...Thanks April!!

Hand stitched Owl applique from the AMAZING Kimara and Michelle over at Wee Folk Art! Thanks as always ladies!! :)

And some Valentines (plus about 20 others NOT pictured) for my girls' classes!

Well, that about wraps up my Valentines for this year!! I had so much fun perusing the bloggy world looking at all of the great tutorials and projects for this year!! Can't wait for next year!

Happy Valentine's Day!! Until later...

Orders and Gifts

2011-02-07T15:06:00.006-06:00

Hi there!! Sorry it's been so long!! I've been busy getting things ready for our Disney World trip, working on Valentine's decorations, filling a few orders, and making gifts!! I was also asked by my sweet Bloggy friend Tammie to do a guest post on her blog, craftytammie!! She is having a LOVEfest of sorts. So take some time this week to check out all of the great things her guest posters are sharing!! And enter a few AWESOME giveaways while you are there! She really is sweet to include me, but with my novice tutorial skills I am not sure I will be very informative...entertaining, maybe!! :) So I chose a quick and easy non-sewing how-to! Wanna know how I made this?

Be sure to check out her blog!! :)

Ok, so on with the sewing stuff! I am hoping this is the last of THESE!!

Three pair of ruffled Minky pants....DONE! My serger is weeping with joy!

My BFFs daughter had a birthday in December. So to ease my sewing load for that month, I just picked up a few things and monogrammed them!

I got the cutest purple yoga pants to go with this fleece pull-over. Teeny-tiny toddler yoga pants?? ADORABLE!! She also got some cute footie jammies...LOVE THESE!!

I am enjoying the simpler gift-giving!! But I also like a little handmade quickie. The birthday girl got a new cousin around her birthday. She was going to see him in the hospital, so I made this little binky holder for her to bring him.

This is just a satin ribbon with a snap and clip attached. She picked out the color for his name...it is hard to see, but sometimes it is better to be subtle! ;)

Next was my nephew's bday. His request....Saints pool cover-up.

This tutorial is ALWAYS good to have!! I would have used different bias tape if I would have had more time...oh well, next time!! :) This pattern will probably fit him for a couple of years, but it still won't stop him from asking for a different one!! And of course ANY ONE going to Disney World with me will be getting SOMEthing with mouse ears...

Well, that was short and sweet, huh? I have LOADS more to post, but will do it closer to Valentine's Day since that is what has been monopolizing my time lately! I know that I have LOTS to catch up on with my sweeties...sorry, I am getting to you! We had an ice storm of sorts last week...not too bad, but they closed the schools Thursday and Friday "just in case". I know alot of you are getting MUCH WORSE weather, so hang in there...Spring is coming....right?? On top of that, our heat is out downstairs...where my sewing room is! Kinda hard to sew when you are tr-tr-trembling!! :) I've been hibernating upstairs as much as I can. Hopefully the part for the furnace will be in this week..but then we will be in the 70s and won't need it anymore...GAH!! So stay warm and have a good week!! Until later...

This Doll has EVERYTHING!!

2011-01-24T12:06:00.006-06:00

Ok...not YET!! :) I've been busy trying to save money by NOT buying American Girl outfits! So far, it seems to be working since Ms. Priss gets excited every time I make something new for Jasmine...yep, that is her AG Doll's name! Here are a few things keeping me busy...

This was the first thing I made. It is just an easy coat and beret made from a few scraps of fleece. I wasn't sure if I would be able to sew such small seams, so I didn't want anything too complicated. Can't get any easier than fleece. Having no hems or edges to finish makes it less scary and it went super quick!! The pattern was from some free American Girl patterns I found and downloaded. The coat is Molly's raincoat.

Ms. Priss was so excited to have something new! Some of her BFFs wanted to get in on the "momma-made" trend!

Some super quick jersey nighties.

These nighties were made with one of the slip patterns. Cut up tee shirt for some "free" fabric, and add appliques from even more scrap pieces...instant goodness!

Some undies. Now, the pattern told me to do a stretch zigzag stitch along all of the edges...not liking that at all. Is it really needed for stretch jersey? I used a 75/11 stretch needle, but it still seemed to "eat" my fabric...what happened?? PLEASE make some suggestions oh wiser friends of mine!! :)

This one is Ms. Priss' favorite!

She is currently going through a cheetah faze! I used a McCall's pattern for this outfit. I got them while they were 99 cents at JoAnn's. Now if I can just replicate that charm!! HA!! I am currently working on a pair of corduroy boots, I am hand-stitching them because WOW do they have some itty bitty pieces!! And, oh...I did a matching cheetah bag too, but it didn't make it into the picture for some reason!

Yesterday, while Ms. Priss was "busy" on her Nintendo DS, the Middle Child and I made Jasmine a wardrobe to hold all of her new clothes.

This was made from a diaper box, contact paper, scrapbook paper, and a chopstick!! The Awesome Man said he would make a "real" one out of wood soon!! YAY!! My woodworker is back in business now that Football Season is OVER!! Ok, not yet but when the Saints lost...so did his interest in the NFL. YAY!! I mean, not for the Saint losing :( but for having my DIY hubby back!! Anyway, it was pretty simple, just cutting and sticking. We made some "hangers" using chenille stems, that idea could be re-worked since the clothes are a little bigger than one stem so maybe I'll try one and a half!

Well, lots of other things going on...just don't want to overload you on photos! I'll try and post more sooner! The MAIN reason I have been soooo busy is THIS guy:

Meet Houston. This was my Husband's Christmas present. Since this picture was taken, he has probably doubled in size!! Could be all of the SHOES he is eating!! UGH!! I have to be very adamant about PICKING THINGS UP!! And with three children, FIVE if you are counting the two GROWN boys...which I do since I am PICKING up after them too (?!), I have to make sure EVERYTHING is off of the floor or it is fair CHEWING game for this one!! I have my kennel cleaned and READY!! Many of my friends have suggested crate training, which I am WELL aware of because that is what we used for Floyd, but because of Abby (the world's BEST dog) we have gotten spoiled to the ways of a WELL trained dog. But, now that not one, but TWO of my Crocs have been eaten...I am ready!! :) Wish me luck and until later...

Welcome 2011!

2011-01-11T07:32:00.006-06:00

Sorry...I know I am ELEVEN days into 2011, but I've been trying to keep my resolution to keep my house cleaner and more organized!! I know, I know...it is my resolution EVERY year!! But you know how it goes..."if you don't first succeed, try, try again!!" I am trying!! I've got my Christmas stuff down and put away...YAY!! I also spent a WHOLE day going through my THREE children's closets!! I was tired of tripping over BAGS and containers FULL of clothes that needed to be sorted and put in the attic! It was giving them an excuse to NOT keep the room clean! And this is a 20x20 foot room ya'll!!! Now I just need to go through all of the toys and throw out the broken ones!!! And you know how I HATE to throw stuff out!! :)

So anyway...I promised to be back with the gifts I made for some adults in my family...so without further ado....for my Momma:

I did all of the mouse ears on my monogramming machine, then sewed them onto the tee shirt. I wanted them to be BIG and DRAMATIC! What do you think?

And one for my lil' sister...

My daddy is not going to Disney World with us! :( We will get you off the porch ONE DAY, daddy!! xo

I had a hard time trying to think of something for my daddy!! But then I thought...PEPPERS!! He LOVES hot stuff! He grows his own peppers and makes his own hot sauce...that's some dedication ya'll!! :)

Did ya notice the pocket? Can't have a tee shirt withOUT a pocket!! HA!

Ok...so the last gift has been about 2 years in the making!!! Not because it is sooooo hard, or BIG even...but because I am the WORSE procrastinator in the WHOLE world!!!

My momma's sister was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. When I found out, I knew immediately that I wanted to make something for her. She lives in Texas, so we couldn't be with her during all of her Chemo and then Radiation Therapy. My idea was to make something she could have with her that would give her the feeling that we were all there "wrapping" our love around her! I know, sweet right? The problem is that I just didn't get it done!! She only has one child..but that child gave her three really great grandkids!! But because my Aunt is soooo full of love, she has always thought of my siblings and me as her own...just like my mom does my cousin...so of course our children are her extended grandchildren!! Makes sense, right?

She is Nana to all of the children!!

I did the big kids' hand prints with fabric paint on cotton jersey fabric. The little ones got their foot done! :) I started this when my brother's daughter was 2 months old!! She will be 3 in July!! I do have a little bit of defense for why it took some time...my cousin was pregnant with her ~~oops~~ third child at the time...so I needed to wait until after she was born so I could include her. Also, my family lives about 2 hours from me...not an ideal way to get everything I need! :)

The backing is a really soft cotton jersey fabric with a black damask-like print!! LOVE IT!

So I FINALLY finished it and gave it too her for Christmas!! Of course, she cried...which had us all tearing up!! She has been in remission for over a year now...we are blessed!!

I want to thank the generous givers at Sew Forum for the embroidery designs I used! I LOVE the little pink ribbon bird! I still haven't ventured into actual "quilting"...maybe this will be the year! Because of all of the super soft jersey I used, I wanted this quilt to be more like a fluffy comforter! It is smaller than what I originally intended...hey I had to cut corners to get it done!!! HA! Obviously 2+ years was not enough time!! ;)

Well...that is all for now! I have done a lot of sewing the last couple of weeks, and my SMS giveaway winner received her package...after a failed attempt..UGH!! So I will be back soon with more! Ms. Priss got an American Girl doll for Christmas...that should tell you what I've been sewing...I am REFUSING to spend $30 on DOLL CLOTHES...sheesh!! I know I will give in and look for sales because when you buy outfits, they also send charms that go on her necklace...I can't make those! :P So if any of you know of any AG doll clothes tutorials out there...send me an email and LINK!!! Until later...

If Christmas is over...WHY am I still BUSY??

2010-12-30T10:01:00.007-06:00

Hope you all had a FABULOUS Christmas!! Ours was great...everyone happy and healthy!! Except for my sister and her husband spreading all of their germy germs at my folks!! Thankfully we made it out of there without any sickness...I HOPE!! The girls stayed behind, so I am keeping my fingers crossed!! :) Anyway..I got MOST of the things finished that I needed to have done. I am still working on an order of minky pants to bring back on New Year's, and some odds-n-ends for my sweet niece that I have been needing to make her. So on with the gifts...oh, I am breaking this up into two posts since it will be picture HEAVY!! I am starting with the gifts for the children in my family! If I haven't mentioned it yet, we are going to Disney World in the Spring....YAY!!! I am sooooo excited and have been typing up itineraries and scheduling Character Dinings!! When we went in 2007, I was pregnant with The Boy, so I couldn't do too much...but THIS time...I am riding the BIG rides!! Whoo Hoo!!

So anyway, I decided to make some fun things for the kiddos to have for the long car ride!

Crayon rolls for the younger ones....and for the older ones...

a drawstring bag and roll up for colored pencils!

I also wanted to make them something to collect memories...

Autograph Books!! These were very time consuming, but soooo worth it!! I used cereal boxes, covered them with Contact paper and added stiff felt, ribbon, and lots of fun trims! I used card stock for the pages because I wanted them to be durable and not tear out! Thanks to my friend Kathy and her awesome Crop-a-dile, I was able to punch holes through the cover AND all pages of the card stock in ONE punch!!!! That thing is AMAZING!! I got some gift cards to Hobby Lobby for Christmas from my mom and sister (thanks, ya'll) and you can BET I will be looking for one of those!! I just used a Sharpie to write their names, but added a little glitter to bling it up! My sister got all of the kids pens, so they should be set!! Oh...here is what they will carry it all in...

I had a whole bunch of drawstring bags...not sure where I got them from...or WHY, but I found them during the Great Sewing Room clean up and knew they would be perfect! I used my Cricut Expression to cut out the mouse ear appliques and ironed them on. I used a tight zig zag stitch to secure them and stitched on the bows for the girls'.

Here is a little close up of all of the girls' gifts....and here is one of a single set....

I was soooo happy when I was done!! It was very time consuming, like I said...but I am so proud of how it all came out!! :) I added coloring books and word searches to round out the gifts.

Of course they liked them, and I told the moms to take them away....until the trip! :)

So, for my NON-Disney going niece...

She just got this outfit! :P

It is made with brown Kona cotton and dotted flannel. I used velcro for the closure. She is 18 months, so I figured it would be easier to get her in and out! JoAnn's had these little spools of rickrack for FIFTY CENTS!! I bought a whole bunch! I think it added just the right amount of cuteness! So, that's it for now! I'll post the adults gifts next time! It won't be as picture heavy...maybe!

Oh yeah, one more picture. This is for my dinosaur-loving Boy!

Be safe this New Year's!! Until later....

I'm BUSY....and you are?

2010-12-20T08:41:00.006-06:00

So how many of you are CRAZY busy?? Last week while the giveaway was in full swing, I was so busy that I didn't have much time to enter as many giveaways as I would have liked...which means I didn't win anything :(...didn't get to return many "thank yous" for all of the sweet comments I got during my giveaway :(...and didn't get to clean my house!! It is a MESS, ya'll!! Oh well, it will have to wait until after Christmas! On top of all of the gifts I am making for my extended family, there were many OTHER things keeping me busy!

First up...a birthday party!! Well, actually there was supposed to be two birthday parties, but one got cancelled..which is giving me time to procrastinate on those gifts! But here are the gifts for one of Ms. Priss' good friends, and fellow Girl Scout!

I went a little easy on myself and bought some tees from the clearance rack to embellish..

I added the K from a maternity tee that was doused with bleach somehow...but it worked with the tie-dye! She has an older sister close in age, so I wanted it to be "hers" only! You see, I have an older sister...so I KNOW these things!! HA!

Here is another one...with some machine embroidery!

And I threw in a wonky flower headband for some extra fashion!

And a crayon roll...my first...without looking at a tutorial!

It is not very neatly done...and the elastic/button closure is not centered....I have since printed out a tutorial!! Next time, I'll do better!! :)

Ok..birthday party DONE! On to the NEXT....The Middle Child had her Pre-K program last Wednesday. She was a Sugar Plum Fairy...so a new tutu was in order:

I tried a different approach to making this tutu...using this tutorial. It is sewn instead of tied. I like the effect, but really needed to go back and "even" it out!! Some of my tulle is longer in areas...oops! For the $1 store-bought wings, I just hot glued some Christmas-y ribbon around the edges...she suggested adding the pom-poms!

Then I cut out some shiny silver fabric, bunched it up and appliqued it to a shirt.

Cute..huh? I thought candy would be appropriate for a Sugar Plum Fairy!! :) Next was little gifts for the class.

The girls got Christmas-y ribbon-tied Pony-Os, and the boys got little stuffed felt ornaments. Stuffed with Serger Scraps...see EVERYTHING is useful! HA!

For the teacher, a wall banner for her to display her LISTS!

I couldn't think of anything...came up with this at the last minute when I noticed she just had her class list and Lunch Bunch list just taped to the wall outside her room! Now she has a nice "display"!

Also on Wednesday, we had a Girl Scout meeting. My friend Kathy came over Tuesday and we did the preliminary painting and hot-gluing to the shirts the girls were going to be finishing at the meeting.

TWENTY-something shirts....TWENTY-something hands full of paint....TWENTY-something shirts full of GLITTER....GAH!! MESSY!

But oh-so-CUTE! We are going to a Nursing Home this week, where the girls will wear their shirts and sing to the residents!!

Next up...my friend Kathy had a request....

This is for her nephew...SHINY, huh? She bought the fabric AND some new cutting mats for my Cricut...how could I refuse! :) Here is the applique close up.

This was some slippery fabric to work with...THANKS Allie for telling me about the Teflon foot for my sewing machine...it really helped keep this fabric under control!!

So that is all I can show you for this week!! After Christmas I will be able to show you all of the cuteness that will be going to all of my nieces and nephews!!

Friday was Ms. Priss' last school day of the year. Her teacher gives the class an ICE CREAM party every year...brave girl!! It wasn't too messy and the kids LOVED it!! I ordered this from my sweet friend Melanie!! She does such AWESOME work!! I had to change my order at the last minute because I thought the teacher collect KITTIES...but no, it was BUNNIES!! Thanks Melanie for being sooooo sweet and understanding!! AND for doing such an AWESOME job with this ornament!!

Whew...lots of pics, I know!! Sorry, just trying to fit it all in! :) Well, back to my sewing room...only FIVE more sewing days until Christmas!!! If I don't make it back until then...MERRY CHRISTMAS!! xo Until later...

SMS Giveaway WINNER...

2010-12-18T00:51:00.004-06:00

WOW!! What an incredible week of giveaways!! Thank you to EVERYONE who stopped by and entered!! I am so grateful for all of your sweet, sweet comments!! And thank you to Sew Mama Sew for such wonderful opportunity to "meet" so many AMAZING talents out there in the blog world!! And I must give you EXTREME props for the organization of this Giveaway!!

Ok...so enough gushing!! Due to my inability after SEVERAL miserable attempts...I could not get the Random Number Generator to appear on my blog!! Sorry, ya'll! But if you are willing to take my word for it...you are going to LOVE the winner of my giveaway.....

#57 Marlene is the CUTEST face out there in blogland!! She would like a crown...how fabulous would she look in it?? I 'm sending her person, Trudy an email now...maybe she would let me post a picture of Marlene wearing her new crown?? So congratulations girl!!! Thanks again everyone, I really enjoyed making new friends!! Until later...

Welcome to SMS Giveaway Day!!

2010-12-13T00:14:00.008-06:00

Thanks everyone...we have a winner and the comments are CLOSED!! Have a good weekend!

Hello everyone! How AWESOME is Sew Mama Sew! to offer up a day for all of us to get together and share??! I'm sure we are all busy getting things done before Christmas...I know I am! But I've decided to take time away from all of my gift making in order to cram in some new inspiration! I hope you see something here that will inspire you too. Anyway, I know time is of the essence today, so I will get to it.

I am giving away something custom made FOR YOU!! All you have to do is check out some of my slide shows on the left and figure out WHAT you would like for me to make you! Here is a little collage of things for your "quick-viewing" pleasure.

Giveaway Day will actually last until December 17th, so you will have plenty of time to decide! I am willing to ship internationally, so EVERYONE is welcome to enter. All you have to do is leave a comment telling me what you would like for me to make you. Since the shipping deadline is December 20th, some items such as quilts or knitted items will NOT be an option...I'm not that fast ya'll! :) I do have a monogramming machine, so make it personal!! Don't see any embroidery designs or appliques that interest you? Make a suggestion!! I have TONS of designs, so it is possible I will have something that you like! I would suggest that because of shipping, Christmas items might not make it on time. :( But if it is a Holiday banner or place mats or hand towels...there is always next year to use them!

Ok...so that's it!! Check out my creations and tell me what you want! Please make sure you leave an email so I can reach you! I will try my hardest to respond to your comments, or visit your blog...ESPECIALLY if you are participating in Giveaway Day! HA! Have FUN today, and GOOD LUCK!! Until later...

***EDITED to add*** My friend Beatrix sells the Elise Doll pattern in her Etsy shop here!! They are soooo easy to make and little girls LOVE them!! If you aren't lucky enough to win and you sew...please check out her shop for this fabulous pattern!! It really is easy and you will make tons of cute dolls!! :) Thanks for all of the sweet comments!

Minky Top and Green Corduroy Ruffle Pants

2010-12-10T12:55:00.005-06:00

So, did I mention that I came down with a nasty stomach virus Monday? I went to bed as soon as Ms. Priss got off of the bus and didn't get up until the next morning. Still felt a little yucky, but I was able to get out of bed!! Anyway, remember the Middle Child had Red and THEN Green Day? Yeah, I missed Red Day! She actually had to wear something off the hanger...GAH!! Well, to make up for it I went ahead and combined Green Day WITH Red day!

Isn't it the cutest? This is what happens when you have a LOT of Minky lying around! You start getting ideas!! HA!

I cut the Corduroy pants LAST YEAR, I think! I found them during the Great Sewing Room clean up!! I am not sure WHY I cut two sets...since I only have The Boy...? Well, I decided to make the best of it and use them anyway! I think I will add some pockets to The Boy's pair, though. They seem kinda plain!

I was playing around with my embroidery software and came up with this design. Can you tell what it is? I mean, besides a snowflake.... ;)

So the little Minky top was SUPER easy! Do you notice any buttons?

Here is how I did it... I folded the Minky remnant that I had in half and put the fold at the TOP. I used an A-line pattern I had handy...I know lots of peices, but it was handy!!

Then I cut....because the shoulders are on the fold it is already connected! No need for seams or buttons or ties or etc...

Then I sewed the two side seams, serged around the neck "circle" and two arm "circles", folded and topstitched. Viola!

Can you tell WHY I don't have tutorials on my blog??!! I am terrible AWFUL with the details!! HA! Ok, one last look of the Red Day/ Green Day outfit...

TOO CUTE!!

Now back to my sewing room to finish birthday gifts....Christmas gifts...SMS Giveaway thingie..that I still haven't decided on....Hopefully by the end of the weekend I'll have an idea, you know, since the giveaway is MONDAY!!! Until later...

And so it begins...

2010-12-07T12:11:00.006-06:00

Hey everyone!! Have you started your Christmas sewing yet?? I will be in my sewing room aLOT this holiday!! Do you like my wreath? We had to cut some lower branches from our tree and you know how I HATE to waste! :) I just grabbed some floral wire and started wrapping. I know it is not a perfect circle...oh well!! I've never made a "living" wreath before..not bad, I think!

So, this is a little alcove upstairs that looks over our living room. I've always wanted to put lights here, but unfortunately there are no outlets. So this year, I decided to make my own!

These were done almost completely on my embroidery machine. I just cut some extra felt for the backing and sewed them on a ribbon. I really love the silver metallic thread!!

Not as dramatic as real lights, but I think they came out really cute! :)

I also did a set for Ms. Priss' teacher. Don't worry, this is the last "kiss up" I'll be doing at least until the end of the year! HA!

For hers, I wanted to try a different way of making the lights. I did the lettering with my embroidery machine, but then I cut the bulb shapes and did a small zigzag stitch to sew them to the felt backing. It is almost the same effect. I know the pictures are hard to tell the difference between the two sets, but the HOURS spent sitting at my embroidery machine was lessened!! I had some silver metallic fabric in my stash that I used at the top of the bulb to give it the same shiny-ness as the ones using the silver metallic thread! Either way...I LOVE these!! But I think the time spent "babysitting" my embroidery machine while it stitches out the entire bulb is totally UNnecessary!! :) Besides...I will be giving that machine more of a work out as the Christmas sewing continues!!!

Did a couple more yo-yo headbands! One for Ms. Priss...

And one for her friend...LOTS of birthdays this month...which will add to my already MILE long list of things to do!! ;)

And of course it wouldn't be a completely HECTIC month without my sister calling and saying, "Hey, I've got my husband's family Christmas this weekend...ya got anything laying around that you can make for me?"

Sure sis...always have stuff "laying around"!!

Love how this stitched out...so cute!!

This is a size 3t, so you don't need much "laying around" to make a twirly skirt! I think I have mastered the art of ruffles thanks to all of the Minky pants I've been doing!! So WHY can't I get gathering down?? Isn't it the same thing? Just wondering...

This is for the little brother...

I used some old jeans for this bib!! The "shiny" is the vinyl overlay, one of these days I'll buy some of that iron-on laminate...anyone use that before?

Then of course she needed "a little something" for the adults. Isn't she lucky I always have a stash of hand towels "laying around"?

These were REALLY BIG hand towels. I cut them in half to make matching sets. The finished towels were something like 14" x 17"...see, REALLY BIG hand towels.

Well, that is it for now!! I will be posting things sporadically between now and Christmas, but I don't want to give away any presents I'm working on, so those will have to wait until after Christmas!! :) But don't worry, I have LOTS of sewing to do. I have two birthday parties this weekend..and the Middle Child has RED, then GREEN day this week...and next week she needs a tutu for her Sugar Plum Fairy role in her Pre-K Christmas program!! AND I am seriously considering participating in Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day this Monday!!! Am I crazy?? Who else is participating?? I need some ideas for the giveaway, so someone make a suggestion! :) Have a good week!! Until later...

Happy Thanksgiving!!

2010-11-24T08:50:00.004-06:00

I hope everyone eats 'til they are STUFFED! :) That way I know I won't be ALONE!! HA! I am looking forward to spending some time with my family...and MY KIDDOS!! Two of them have been with my folks since last Tuesday!! My momma and sister came Monday and whisked Ms. Priss away too! They LOVE it over there...but it makes me lonely! :( Anywho...as you can see, I've been playing teacher's pet again!! Love the tulle turkey feathers...last time I used ribbon, but found it "floppy", so I wanted to try something different this time! What do you think? Last week was soooo busy! Ms. Priss' school had their annual Symposium week! This year's theme was History and our parents outdid themselves once again!! Once I get the pictures off of my camera, I'll do a better post on that event! :) I was in the History of Writing tent and got to dress up like a goddess! So much fun! I used a fitted white sheet, since it already had elastic and made a long skirt. Then just ripped wide strips, sewed them together and "draped" them over my shoulders across my chest. Easy peasy...not as formal as my friend the Red goddess, but good enough for this "Homemade Momma"! I wore some crazy false eyelashes I picked-up for 75 cents at the after-Halloween sales...first time for THAT!! Not too bad, but because I was snapping pictures all day, my camera kept grabbing one of the eyelashes and ripping it from my eye!! But I had fun walking up to random parents asking them "hey, can you put this back on for me...?" HA!! They were probably thinking...WHO is this CRAZY woman! Here is a picture of me and another awesome Momma in all of our goddess glory!

Right after Symposium was over...it was on to my NEXT project!! Our Girl Scout November meeting and activity was Monday....at MY house!! So of course I HAD to clean...UGH!! But we were also going to learn to knit, so I had much more exciting business to take care of!!

I spent a lot of time browsing the internet trying to find a good deal on BULK knitting needles for our girls!! The only place I could find, couldn't ship soon enough for me...so I was at a LOSS!! WHAT am I going to do..I don't have 20+ knitting needles laying around my house...ok, I do have ALOT, but not TWENTY!! ;) So I called my other knitting momma and asked if she had any extra and she said...none that would work for teaching 7 and 8 yos!! BUT she did give me a FABULOUS idea....CHOP STICKS!! How AWESOME is that?? I mean, they are made of bamboo, which is a choice material as far as knitting needles go! AND they are just the right size for little hands! So I got to work collecting chop sticks from various local Chinese restaurants...mmmmm!! I love Chinese food, so this was SUCH a hardship!! HA! So after collecting, I did some light sanding to get all of the little burrs out, and made sure the tips were pointy enough. But what to put on the ends to keep the yarn from coming undone??? Beads? But would I be able to find beads with that big of an opening to slip on a chop stick...ooooh I know..I can make some clay beads. But I'd never done it before!! Thankfully, I have an AWESOME friend who makes the most AMAZING things with polymer clay!! Thanks Melanie!! You were such a wealth of information!!

Here are 21 knitting needles, with 20 stitches cast on and one row knitted...yes, that was a LATE night...thankfully there were re-runs of Project Runway on to keep me SANE!! ;)

And my beads close up! I know...not as awesome as Melanie's creations...check out her Etsy shop!! She made a fabulous ornament for me last year of all the grandkids...my Momma LOVED it!! I was really not expecting ALL 21 girls to show up...but they did!!! WOW was it crazy!! We had 3 mommas that knew how to knit...and that is because I gave my friend Kathy a crash course Friday after Symposium...thankfully she is a FAST learner with TONS of patience!! And of course my knitting GURU friend who is always a wealth of knowledge on all things knitting!! Also, her daughter was our "teacher"...she did her best to explain how to knit...but ended up showing them a way more interesting way...FINGER KNITTING!! The girls loved this even more then regular knitting!! Oh well, they all loved their needles and went home HAPPY!!! Once they were gone...it was back to the sewing room to finish up......

THESE!!!

YAY!! No more minky pants!! Wait a minute....what is in that bag my sister brought when she took my children???!!!! UGH!!! MORE MINKY!!!! That's it...I am officially shutting down the minky pants-making machine!! I've got to start sewing for Christmas!!! Until later....

Sewing for Fall

2010-11-09T22:06:00.005-06:00

Thanks to a really good friend, my sewing room is SEMI-clean and organized!! YAY!! She insisted on coming over and kicking my butt in gear! She went on and on about how great it would feel to be able to SEE everything I had. And how much I would get accomplished if I could actually USE my cutting table!! She was right....OF COURSE!! She gave me two good days of her precious, recovering-from-chemo time and made me promise to do more on my own...how could I refuse? She has Lupus and has been going through years of struggling to keep her own arts and crafts clean and organized! So THANK YOU my friend!! On with the sewing....

Do you like my new banner for Fall? I LOVE it! It is made with burlap and lots of SCRAPS!! Can I tell you that the amount of my scrap stash is gianormous!! So much so that I am having to THROW little pieces away!! GAH!! It is killing me! So, after much back N forth, and getting Steph to BELIEVE me...I'm boxing some up and sending some to Australia! But even that is proving to be a challenge! I LOVE you, Steph..but I find myself picking up scraps to put in your box and think, "but maybe I'll USE this..." I know, I know....I AM AN ADDICT!! :) I think I will have to blindfold myself and just shove some in...that way I won't know exactly what is going in...and I won't miss it!! HA!! Anyway, I would love to show you some pictures, but something is wonky with my lens! I think it has been dropped too many times!! It won't auto focus when I zoom in and out, and even my manual focusing is leaving alot to be desired. Maybe I'll win the AWESOME giveaway over at MADE. Some super duper awesome ZOOM lens that fits a Canon or Nikon. I'm keeping my fingers crossed....yeah, me and the 1500 that commented BEFORE me...and that was like three days ago...the giveaway goes until the END of November. Can you imagine getting THAT many comments?? {shudder} So please forgive my terrible pictures!!

Ms. Priss loved her Halloween Yo-Yo headband so much, I made her one for Fall with......SCRAPS!

The red corduroy has a pom pom too...it must have gotten hungry and SWALLOWED it!! ;)

The middle child has BROWN Day tomorrow...no pressure to have anything done...thankfully for the THIRD year in a row, these corduroy pants will be worn!! Remember, these were originally made for the Boy for his first Thanksgiving...then last year after he outgrew the length, the Middle Child got them with the addition of a cute ruffle...this year I added a new Swing top made from my Scrap stash...YAY!!

Again, sorry for the horrible picture...I won't be holding out for the giveaway, I've already ordered a replacement lens! :) So, I've been seeing alot of acorns this fall....must be a trend! She really likes it and I had to pry it off of her today, with the promise of being able to wear it all day tomorrow!

Oh, here are a couple more Minky ruffled pants I did last month.

I just got the red Minky in for three more orders. I do feel better when my sewing room is neat and organized! Hopefully it will last...but the Holiday season is upon us!! With all of the fabulous tutorials popping up on Sew Mama Sew! these days....the wheels of creativity are turning!! And did I mention that we booked Disney in the Early Spring???? SOOOOO excited!! Our last visit was Thanksgiving 2007 when I was pregnant with the Boy, so not many rides I could do!! I have been having fun planning our trip and making maps and scheduling character dinings...so much to do in such a short time!! Anyone been recently?

So that is it for this post...it is LATE and I am tired! Check out the new links I've added on the left...one is for Wee Folk Arts Handmade Holidays Directory!! These awesome ladies always offer the best support for Crafters!! If you sell stuff online...go and add your link to the ever growing list!! The other new link is Sew Mama Sew!...of course!! They are doing Handmade Holidays IV! Lots of tutorials, lots of prizes, lots of chances to win!! So one last look at my cute Fall banner, wish the picture was better...oh well...

...until later...

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-26T23:33:00.004-05:00

October is always so busy!! This year has been no different, just adding in the Girl Scout stuff made it even MORE busy!! But the girls' had such a great time, what's a little running around? They were out of school Friday, the 15th, so we scheduled a "meet up" at our local pumpkin patch. We had a picnic lunch and the girls' ran through the Hay Maze and just all over the pumpkin patch in general. Unfortunately by the time we decided to do the Hay ride, the tractor driver had left for the day, but they didn't seem too upset! Soon it was time to grab the pumpkins we were borrowing and head over to the Festival of Virtues grounds to decorate. This was our service project for the month of October, and the girls' did a wonderful job. We were back Saturday to participate in the Festival and the girls' ran around some more and got some great lessons in virtues. This was an AWESOME event, put on by a local family. They started the foundation to honor families, morals, and to instill values in all generations! This was the 2nd year they put this Festival on and I am so honored that our Girl Scouts were able to help out and participate! Sunday we met my momma and siblings at the Baton Rouge Zoo for the annual Boo at the Zoo! The kids LOVE it so much, and we enjoy the day every year! But that meant I needed to have costumes DONE!! Thankfully, I didn't procrastinate, like I ALWAYS do and got it done!

The Boy is pretty easy...anything DINOSAUR makes him happy!! He won't even get DRESSED unless it is a dinosaur shirt!! Really, it took me 45 minutes one day. Finally he accepted that some stripes on a tee shirt were DINOSAUR STRIPES and put it on!! The next time I was in Wal-mart they had Garanimals brand tees WITH dinosaurs on them for $3!! You can BET I scooped up a week's worth of shirts!!

I was inspired by Stephanie over at MooBear with this cape...she made one for her Bear, and I KNEW it was going to be the Boy's costume!! Thanks Steph!!!
I had some Styrofoam laying around from something (YEAH, I NEVER throw anything away!), so I cut rounded triangles and stuffed them in some shiny fabric that came from the $5 grab bag! The cape was two halves that I sandwiched the "spikes" between and stitched together. Then just added some flannel for the backing! A little tricky, but not too difficult! He loves it and wears it all of the time! One down...

Next up, Ms. Priss. She picked out an Eskimo costume from Target, but I knew it would be too hot for her to wear and convinced her to let me make her one. (Sorry about the photo...I'm still not comfortable putting my children on the blog.)

Here is the problem...I could have SWORN the dress was red in the ad...but it turns out that it was BROWN!! "I look like SANTA CLAUS!!" Here comes the SASS!! And the funny part was, she LOVED it, until one of her friends TOLD her she looked like Santa Claus!! So, is that how it is now?? ALREADY?? She's EIGHT...can you give me a few more years of innocence BEFORE what-the-friends'-say-is-gospel period?? So I convinced her that she was Santa's daughter, and she was happy again! This past weekend, we were at Yogi Bear Campground all weekend. They have a really nice trick-or-treat and the kids love riding their bikes all over...anyway, my sister put some white hair paint in her hair and she T0rTed as Mrs. Claus!! I'm thinking of making something fast for her to wear Halloween night...not sure yet!! This was a dress I started for me, but didn't have time to finish how I wanted so it was in my sewing room already sewn, some what. I cut the neck and shoulder straps a little more defined, my pattern had a yoke attaching the front and back...never got around to making it!! Added the faux fur, so I didn't have to "finish" the neck, arms, or bottom hem. I did make a quick casing around the bottom and slid some boning in...just to see what it would do! I think the knit is too heavy for the FULL effect of the "hoop"..I'll try again with some other fabric!! TWO down...

Lastly(?) is the Middle Child! She wanted to be a princess...I talked her into Little Red Riding Hood.

I DEFINITELY have an ulterior motive! First...she is just too stinkin' CUTE in this!! :D AND, I've been needing to make her a cape, like, FOREVER...

So, as you can see, I didn't attach the hood all the way. I am going to remove it after Halloween, and stick a Super Hero emblem on it...VIOLA! Cape!

The tee is another of those $2 Hobby Lobby shirts that I "girled" up some! I had fun ruffling different fabrics! A good learning experience! Oh, and my other sneaky motive is to use the ruffled shorts for THIS outfit!!

This Friday is ORANGE day at her Pre-K, and I thought I picked up an orange tee at HL for her....NOPE!! So a quick pillowcase style top with some scrap fabric I literally picked up off the floor!! I had to add the "ruffle" (if that is what you want to call it) to the bottom to make sure it was long enough and covered her tummy!! Ok, here's the story...I was being lazy and decided to use my Serger to ruffle and sew the gingham strip at the same time! I had done it before, so I thought..no problem. Well, I think something is wrong with my feed dogs, because it didn't seem like it was ruffling the way it should. Oh well..good enough!! :D If you can think of a "quick fix" before Friday, please TELL ME!! So, that's all! I did finish two more pair of Minky pants, but I'll post them some other time! I still have four pair to make...waiting on some red Minky! I am sitting with Ms. Priss' class tomorrow from noon to 3pm...THIS SHOULD BE INTERESTING!!! And I know I need to get to bed...or I will be REALLY grouchy!! Sorry this is kinda short and sweet...and choppy...with LOTS of rambling....until later...

A Little of This and That

2010-10-11T13:25:00.007-05:00

WOW!!! I've been busy! Not sure if I like it, but I guess this is the life of a sewing/ crafty mom of three! I am the assistant leader of Ms. Priss' Girl Scout Brownie Troop and this year, I am trying to be BETTER at it! This is ALOT of work! We have 21 girls in our Troop, and getting information to THAT many moms has been TOUGH! But I think most of the hard work is done and now I can start slacking off a little....yeah, right! :D We will have our first Troop meeting tomorrow, and have some scheduled events this weekend...then I won't have to THINK about it for another month!!

So anyway...back to being busy!! I did some monogramming for a friend/ Cake business having Momma! We decided to "trade" services. She gave me two dresses and a backpack to monogram....YIKES!!

Can you IMAGINE if I would have messed up these lovelies?? I was sooooo nervous. But thankfully, they came out great and she really liked them...YAY! The backpack was easy enough...once I found a place that my machine would ACCEPT!! Picky, that machine of mine! :D

The backpack was grey and orange...I PROMISE you I did NOT mean to use Florida colors!!

My friend's son turned 11. This is what I made him!

He is all about orange and yellow! It is the colors of his soccer team. The bag is made from a pair of Dickies pants. Are you proud of me Steph?

The next couple of pictures are things I've made to put in our school's PBS store. I FINALLY decided on items for boys...

BAG TAGS!! YAY! These are made from stiff craft felt and cardstock cut on my Cricut Expression. I sandwiched them between some heavy clear vinyl and did a zigzag stitch.

I slit an opening in the back so the information card could be removed easily. Then my friend Kathy used her Crop-a-Dial to put tiny little grommets in for the cording and twill ties. Thanks Kathy!! That is one neat little gadget...must put it on my Christmas list! :) pssst..the link is for you daddy! ;)

Girls are easy enough...lots of bows, headbands, and clips:

The tulle bows were a hit with my daughters and their friends, so I made a couple for them.

And now that Halloween is upon us....UGH!! Still haven't started the COSTUMES!!

I'd never really done yo-yos before. Ms. Priss LOVES this headband!! Wears it almost EVERY day!!

And yesterday, to give the girls something to do, we made these:

So much FUN!!

Ok, I am a TEACHER suck up!! Ms. Priss' teacher LOVED this:

So cute, I decided to do one for ME!!

I'd used my Cricut to cut a pumpkin face for an orange tee shirt, and felt soooo wasteful with the left behind cut out!! So I just stuck in on some burlap and made a door banner for our home!!

So that is all for now!! Personal updates...we still haven't found our dogs. I have been checking the pound weekly just in case they show up, and I went on THE DAY a couple of weeks ago. You know what DAY I'm talking about right? The day that the ones that have been there too long are put down...so sad!! So we "saved" one! Abby is eight years old, and a really good dog!! We keep looking for our Floyd and Peggy, but as the weeks go by, our hope is dwindling...so if you are in Lafayette and happen upon two dogs without collars, but look happy, healthy, and well-fed, they are good dogs and need your love!! Or you can check the Lafayette Animal Aid Lost and Found website and get my info!! Thanks! Now back to the Minky pants making....until later...

Skate/ Slumber Party Favors

2010-09-26T08:17:00.007-05:00

Hello!! I am just poppin' in to say how AWESOME the slumber party went!! We ended up with 10 girls and had a BLAST!! :D

I decided to do a Rainbow theme, because that is what I think of when I think SKATING!! :D Yes, I was an 80s tween, and loved roller skating!!

I found a free .SVG file for a roller skate and used my Sure Cuts Alot software to cut out lots of different colors on my Cricut Expression!!

Then glued coordinating wheels and stoppers on the front of the skates, as well as printed labels with all of the party info. Don't you like how I used SK8...she did turn EIGHT after all!! :D

Then I got to work!

Pom Poms made from yarn of all colors for the girls to wear on their roller skates!! FUN! FUN! I searched online and found a way to make the pom poms with cardboard circles and I was off....WOW that was ALOT of work!! Then I remembered that I had bought a pom pom maker thing-a-ma-jig that I found clearanced out, a couple of years ago....MUCH EASIER!!! Although I did get blisters on my pinky from pulling the yarn tight enough to tie up the poms!! Battle scars! :D Next, I made some ribbon hair bands for my Birthday Girl!! And then we "practiced" our party craft of stringing pom poms for boas and bracelets. I needed to make sure it was something eight year old girls could do, and have the attention span for!! They did and we had lots of participation! Mostly bracelets, but a couple actually sat still long enough for the boas!!

I also made sleep masks for all of the guests! Which they all LOVED...but really didn't use since there was NO SLEEPING!!! They had more fun wearing them as blindfolds and chasing each other....or their favorite activity of the night....stair SLEDDING!!

I assure you that no one was injured, and there were THREE adults supervising this CHAOS!! Thanks Momma for being here and HELPING me!! LOVE YOU!

Of course the birthday girl got a pair of Minky ruffle pants, well more like capris...she didn't want them dragging the floor!

And speaking of the FLOOR!!

This is the bedroom floor right before I went to bed...sorry, couldn't hang with the 8 yr olds...I was TIRED!! :D

So all and all, a GR8 party!! The girls had so much fun skating, or in most cases learning to skate. Then running, screaming through our home trying to get away from my husband, the crazy photographer...although they stopped every now and then to give a pose!! We did some singing and dancing on the Wii...LOVE Disney Sing It, and Boogie Superstar! We also did a little Dance, Dance Revolution thanks to my BFF finding the Dance Pad and giving it as a Birthday Gift....she ROCKS!! Everyone left happy and I was informed by most of the parents that the girls went home and took LONG NAPS!!! I can't imagine why!! HA!!

I also had an order through this Blog last week...YAY!! I actually finished it and got to the post office, during all of this party planning....go me!! This week I am working on more Minky pants!! Very busy...sorry I PROMISE I am not ignoring my sweeties...I'll catch up soon!! Until later...

Minky Ruffled Pants...and Louisiana Team Fashions!

2010-09-11T07:20:00.009-05:00

MINKY ruffled pants??!! Have you ever HEARD of such a thing?? I hadn't, until I was sent a request for a pair...now have SEVERAL requests and had NO IDEA how to price them! Good ole Google to the rescue! It seems that this is not a new concept...just to ME! Needless to say...I was scared! Now, I have sewn Minky before..no big deal...but ruffling??? Thankfully my tried and true technique worked! That is to set your tension to the tightest level, and your stitch length to the longest....works like a dream! Ta Da...Minky ruffled pants...YAY!! So, you will be seeing A LOT of these in the blog posts to come...FIVE orders, and TWO daughters!! Did I tell you that having a Serger HELPS!!

Here is another pair of ruffled pants for my niece...it pairs nicely with the cutest pumpkin applique shirt that I didn't have to do! YAY! Did I mention that it is difficult to find plain white shirts in Lafayette? I guess I am going to have to start ordering them online! Know of any good sites?

So because of the LACK of cute kid's tee shirts in Lafayette, I just picked up a couple of plain ole' tees at Hobby Lobby, when they were 50% off, and decided I would try my hand at altering them into something much cuter.

I cut the collar band off the this tee and added the tiger fabric ruffle. Then got creative with the elastic thread...

Three lines of stitching around the bottom hem (the last two is the hem stitching).

And one line of elastic thread stitching around the sleeve (again, the last two is the hem stitching). And VIOLA, cute tee!

These tees are a size bigger than I would normally buy to fit my girls, that way I would get the "baggy" effect with the elastic stitching. The necklines were a little lower because of the bigger size, but not too bad and it will give them room to grow. Here is the one for Ms. Priss.

The applique letters were cut using my Cricut...like I could use scissors this fancy!! HA!

A little tiger paw embroidery action on a clearanced out skirt from Target...instant LSU fan!!

And speaking of dem Tigers....

Here is another paw print appliqued tee. I don't know if I mentioned it in my last post, but for the first paw print tee, I did not embroider directly on the shirt. I appliqued the fabric, cut it out, then sewed it on the shirt. I think it looks bigger because of the spacing between the toes and foot pad. For this one, my embroidery machine did all of the work. Which way do you like best?

I didn't forget The Boy...

With some Minky scraps I appliqued this football..soooo cute. I also learned how to curve lettering on my Embird embroidery software..aahhh technology. The LSU is a cut piece of fabric zigzagged on.

Now for the Saints fans....WHO DAT?

This is a different football design....I LOVE SEW FORUM!! The Fleur De Lis is a filled embroidery design..also from Sew Forum!

Not to leave out the girls...

...add some ruffled pants, instant outfit! I am not sure what's going on in these pictures with the collar...it is just a plain collar, maybe it is a reflection? Anyway, did I forget to mention this post was Picture HEAVY!! :D Ok, one more and we are done. Any UL Lafayette fans out there?

Ms. Priss had a "Where Red Day" at her school to support the local college team. Again, these letters were cut using my Cricut, then sewed on. The white letters are Minky, kids love feeling the soft, cuddly!

So that was one week's worth of sewing....GEESH I've been busy!! This past week was a "take it easy" week. I did a couple of bows and fancied up some headbands for Ms. Priss' school store...I'll post those later. I have some orders to do, and some Saints fashions for my kiddos...also Ms. Priss is turning 8 this week!! I'll be doing some things in preparation for her skating/ slumber party...did I mention we will be having 13 girls???!!! Yeah, I'm crazy like that...I get it from my Momma, I remember a 15+ girl slumber party of my own! Love you Momma!

AND I had a BLAST at my reunion!! Got a little tipsy and danced/jumped around like I was 18 again...only I'm NOT...and my CALVES reminded me for THREE days...UGH!! When we got home, our dogs had gotten out....they are still missing. :( I've gone to the pound, posted on FB and the animal control lost/found site, put up signs around the neighborhood....come HOME already!! We are trying to stay optimistic and hoping that they are in someone's backyard for safe keeping. They didn't have their collars on because of recent baths...and forgetful momma!! But they do have microchips in them, so if the pound picks them up, or if someone brings them to a Vet, we should be getting a call!! Oh well, sorry to leave on such a sad note...if you can stand to look at one more picture, here is one of me and my honey before my reunion....

Until later...

The One about a BAG of Fabric...

2010-08-31T07:43:00.005-05:00

So...remember last post when I was running all over town looking for purple polka dot fabric? Well, as I was leaving Hancock Fabric I look over and see a cart FULL of bags. I say to the cashier, "What's that?", she says, "Oh, that's our St. Jude's Grab Bags." "Grab Bags?" I say...."yeah, it's donated scraps and off-cuts, they're $5" "A BAG???" Well you know me...anything for a good cause!!

YES!! I AM A GLUTTON!!

This is only ONE BAG!!

Cottons, Polyesters, Cotton/Poly blends...

Denim, corduroy, Linen, decorator-weight, swimsuit fabric...

Satin, sheers, linings, terry cloth, fleece (even a cut of LSU!!), ultra cuddle fleece, and even a big ole piece of "flag" fabric...nylon right?? I am in SERIOUS need of a fabric recognition CLASS!!
Can you BELIEVE the amount of FABRIC that was in this $5 Grab BAG???!!!! It is all washed, folded and sitting on my cutting table like an AVALANCHE ready to topple over if I even LOOK at it!! Did I really NEED this? ABSOLUTELY!!! HA!! And there you have it...I am a GLUTTON!!

So last week I didn't sew much, just sorted some fabric and tried to prettify The Middle Child's Pre-K bookbag...

As soon as I found out her bag would be blue this year...I immediately thought RAINBOW, Sunny skies and puffy clouds!! Now usually I would machine embroider her name, but it came home with white PAINT pen...what's a momma to do? I just "attempted" a simple backstitch...can I tell you how HARD it is to pull a needle through canvas AND paint pen??? By the time I finished the "O", I was digging though my sewing room looking for a THIMBLE...aaiiieee, my fingers were throbbing!! Oh well...sacrifices...

I've had this sheer Rainbow ribbon for a while...knew it would be perfect. Now most people don't think, Fall=Rainbows...so imagine my GLEE when I am catching up with my FAVORITE all-around Artsy/Crafty HOW TO blog, Wee Folk Art, and see that they are all about RAINBOWS in the Fall!!! :D They are even having a Rainbow-inspired giveaway...it ends September 1st, so HURRY!!

Lastly, I've been practicing my bow-making skills...

Dare I say these came out OK? This was a day's work!! Bow-making is soooo meticulous, which I don't tend to be...so I feel a sense of accomplishment when I see these. Ms. Priss has even worn one EVERYDAY!! She has never been a "Bowhead", so I'm not sure what to think...

I guess I need to make some more! I've offered some to her school for their PBS store. Positive Behavior Support, if the children are caught "being good" they get an Eagle Wing, which can be used like $$ to get something from the PBS store..this is new for this school year, so I thought I would give a few trinkets to help out. They have been using the PBS system for a couple of years now, and I think it is AWESOME! It teaches the children to be respectful and responsible and they have SUPER FUN pep rallies as rewards. At the end of last year, I helped fill water balloons (we did 900 ya'll!!) that the children got to toss at teachers!! SO FUN!!

Well, this weekend is my 20 year High School Reunion....!!! No, I can't BELIEVE it has been TWENTY YEARS...but I am looking forward to seeing old friends! It is also my daddy's birthday, don't worry daddy...I won't say how OLD you are!! :D So what all of this means is MORE SEWING for me!! I am going home by my family and as usual, there are REQUESTS to be FILLED!! I'll be back next week to show off THIS BUSY WEEK'S creations!! Until later....

LSU Ruffle Pants and Hooded Towels

2010-08-23T12:59:00.005-05:00

We went to my folks this past weekend, and usually that means that I am rushing to finish a requested item! Well, these ruffled pants were this visits' request. My always WELL-dressed niece (thanks to a talented sewing AUNT, hee hee!) was in need of some "game" wear. My brother and SIL LOVE to tailgate and attend home games, and having a 2 yo doesn't slow them down! She will be the cutest dressed Tiger Fan! Now, originally they were supposed to be purple with white polka dots like the doll in my header...but I had less than a yard of fabric, which wasn't going to be enough. So off to my less than a block away JoAnn's to pick some up...nothing! Well, I guess I'll try Hancock's down the street....NOPE!! Hobby Lobby, here I come....UGH!!! I guess I should have known that the beginning of Football season would leave the local fabric stores DEPLETED of purples, golds, LSU, or Saints related fabrics!! Thankfully, I had this swirly fabric in my stash and after some emailed fabric choice photos, the SIL decided that this was EVEN better than the polka dot fabric...HOORAY!! And just TRY finding plain white Tshirts with puffy sleeves...HA!! She got this one from her Target and gave it to me my last visit!! I want to know WHERE are all of the sewing and monogramming mommas in this town?? Stop buying up all my NEEDS!! :D Just kidding...send me an email...we can get together!

My SIL also requested some ruffled pants to wear for Saints games.

These are plain enough to also use for Halloween...so I guess my NEXT request is for a matching Appliqued shirt. NO problem...just send me some SHIRTS!! You know MADE has a really good tutorial for making your own Tshirts and also one for making Puffy sleeve shirts....maybe it would be easier to just learn how to make my own, instead of running all over town LOOKING for some!!

So, anyway, remember last post I was trying to decide what to make for the twin girls' first birthday?

Cute, huh? Hooded towels are soooooo EASY, and ALWAYS a hit! You don't need an embroidery machine to "fancy" them up, although I must admit..it HELPS! Adding fabric letters and appliques work just as well! And a little ribbon action never hurt anyone!! But I would definitely recommend grosgrain and NOT satin ribbon. Satin doesn't stand up well to lots of washing, and it wrinkles. I've used really good felt, and just plain ole craft felt and as long as the applique is not too big, it stands up well too. I have a good friend who requests one EVERY year, since I made one for her son on his first birthday. She is still using that towel and it was made using craft felt AND a satin ribbon...THE HORROR!! Thank goodness I've improved my materials a tad bit. But it is good to know that sometimes even the cheapest of materials can last!

Well, that was it for last week. I have a couple more requests for my NEXT visit home...and one day I will have NO WIPs..yeah, right!! The Middle Child starts her Pre-K 4 classes this week..YAY!! So on MWF, it will be just me and The Boy..think I will get anything accomplished? Oh, and one last thing...a couple of shout outs!! I recently found out that one of my Woodvale Moms is an AWESOME cake maker/decorator. Ms. Priss has her 8th birthday coming up next month, so we are going to discuss a TRADE...my sewing for her YUMMYliciousness!! Check out her FB page, and if you are local...I'll give my official review in a month!! Also, a couple of FABULOUS Woodvale Moms..yeah, we Woodvale Moms ROCK...started a Tshirt business. Their shirts all sport some "catchy" Louisiana sayings and wildlife...here is their website!! They are participating in a GIANORMOUS Craft Show that is an Annual EVENT here in Lafayette. I have never been to Tinsels and Treasures, but have always WANTED to! Maybe, I will check it out this year! I was asked to make some bows for their booth...REALLY? Bows??!! NOT my strongest craft, but I am willing to practice and give it a try...for THEM! That's how much I LOVE them!! :D So, lots to do, as ALWAYS! Until later...

Letters, Letters, Letters

2010-08-17T08:09:00.004-05:00

Been having fun with my Cricut Expression!! This was an order for my good friend's sister. She had a new little girl earlier this year and got some cute letters for her room from her MIL. She wanted to get some for her older daughter's room, but saw the price and immediately called her sister. "Hey, don't you have a friend who sews?"

"Do you think she can make me some letters for Emma?" Well, OF COURSE I can!! :) First I did a little information gathering by going to the store where the MIL got the baby's letters....YIKES!! Pretty pricey for some particle board cut letters with some paint and beads slapped on. AND they were only about 3 inches big. So, I started putting my creative thinking process to work!

First we agreed on the FONT she wanted to use, then she sent me pictures of the sweet girl's sweet little room. It is a very girly garden theme, with pastels and butterflies...cute, cute. Next, I cut the letters from stiff felt for the backing using my Cricut and AWESOME software that allows me to NOT have to buy lots of expensive cartridges and just use whatever font I have on my computer....soooo easy!! Then I chose the fabric, cut 5 inch squares, ironed on some fusible interfacing, cut letters, ironed them on to their respective backings and embellished, embellished, embellished!! All of the trims around the edges are stitched on to reinforce the fusible interfacing, and the ribbons at the top are sandwiched between the backing and fabric to ensure they will hold up to wall hanging! I had a lot of fun making these, and I hope sweet Emma enjoys them!!

So...BACK TO SCHOOL!!

Had this order from a girl at my husband's work....they keep me in "business"! HA! One day I will own a VERY EXPENSIVE embroidery machine that has a FLAT bottom so that this TASK will be MUCH easier!! Hey, I can dream, right?? :D I am very happy the names are actually straight..it was soooo hard getting that pocket on my hoop....centered!!! So when it came time to do Ms. Priss' new backpack, I didn't EVEN want to deal with my embroidery machine.....back to the Cricut!!

Can't say that SEWING on these letters was any easier!!!! WHY did she want them on THAT pocket???!!!! Oh well...it is DONE!! I did hand stitch around the little flower cut outs...NO WAY was I going to get my machine around all of those little curves!! BTW, the fabric letters are from the Moda charm pack I won from SMS eons ago!!! I found them under LOTS of WIPs and TONS of yardage I keep buying...but not using!!! UGH!! MOTIVATE ME!!

While I was on a Cricut roll....I did these cutouts and Modpodged them to her binder...we couldn't find a really cute 1 1/2 inch binder, so we decided to "cute" it up ourselves...I'll let you know how it holds up!!

Ok...so I learned something NEW!!!!

Cool huh? I have ALWAYS loved B&W photos with the little splashes of color, but had NO IDEA how it was done...well, I googled it!!! This tutorial is step by step and soooo easy to follow. If you have Photoshop try it!! It was kinda difficult to be neat, the tulle is transparent in some areas so some of the floor "coloring" came through. I chose this picture, because this weekend is the First birthday for the twin girls I made these for.....AND I HAVE NO IDEA what to make for them!! Well, ok, SOME ideas...but not sure of colors, fabric, trims, etc..... GOT TO GET TO WORK!! Until later...

P.S. I will try to squeak in some visiting time soon...I owe Stephanie a Meme, Amy has been doing soooooooooooooo much, man she is my idol!! And Allie...you are supposed to be taking it easy...EIGHT posts since I've last read!!!! Tammie is pregnant with THREE kids (AWESOME pictures girl!!) and manages to get more accomplished than me....like I've said...GOT TO GET TO WORK!! :)

Everybody Loves a Handmade Gift...I Hope!

2010-07-26T10:59:00.005-05:00

Can you believe I made it back SO SOON?! I can't, but as promised here I am to show you some things I've made for gifts. One of my best friends while I was growing up was my cousin. She was one of my main inspirations for creativity at a young age. I can remember summer days when she, her twin sister, my older sister, and I would lounge around playing cards and taking turns working on a butterfly latch-hook design, which I still have and is currently hanging in my daughters' room. She also made cute little swans out of looped yarn, a bar of soap, and some chenille stems, or as we called them, pipe cleaners. She could crochet and tried without much luck to teach me...I guess I just didn't have it in me to learn, at that time! :D One of my best memories with her is spending a week with her at her GrandMa Pat's. This woman was amazing..I can't remember exactly how old she was at the time, but to my younger self she was probably ANCIENT!! HA! Anyway, she would get us up at 4 a.m. to slop hogs and feed chickens and horses, then would feed us eggs and fried pork chops with maple syrup for breakfast. I don't remember her having a TV, but she did have one of those antique record players with the BIG horn-shaped speaker that you had to hand crank in order for it to play records that were at least a half inch thick!! We would listen to music while she and my cousin crocheted and I cut out bowties from fabric scraps for a quilt she was working on. We hand stitched alot of those bowties, but then she showed me the most FABULOUS sewing machine ever and taught me how to use it! It was an old Singer with the iron trestle peddle...no electricity used for this baby! I vaguely remember trying to sew the quilt blocks together..over and over because I messed up...ALOT!! Good times...and GREAT memories. So back to my gifts...

My cousin's daughter, her first out of FIVE children, got married last weekend in Mississippi. They have lived there, I'm not quite sure how long, but I regret that I have not kept in contact over these long years. All of her children are absolutely gorgeous and I enjoyed spending the limited amount of time we had talking with her and meeting her family. The wedding was simple and beautiful, very much like the bride! She has made everyone in our family so proud and is an extraordinary young lady. She graduated high school at 16, and at almost 21 has a degree in primary education, she just has to finish up her state exam to become a certified Teacher! So proud!

She had a set of placemats on her registry, and being the lazy, not-wanting-to-leave-the-house person that I am, I decided to make her some from my stash! She is using mostly browns and earth tones so I thought these would work ok! The paisley print is a home decor weight that I've used in many other projects, and is the backing for the place mats.

While we were in Mississippi, I got to meet my other cousin's new baby for the first time. She is sooooo cute with a head FULL of black hair...just gorgeous. I didn't make it to the baby shower, so I wanted to give her something.

I just did a cute applique on the front of a onesie...

And added a couple of ruffles on the back! This was my first time doing one of these...super simple with maximum cuteness!! I chose the cherry print because I had a cute grosgrain ribbon that matched it perfectly for a bow!

My friend Jane went to Houston to visit family and needed birthday gifts for her MUCH younger twin brothers...

They are into soccer, and having some fabric in my stash, I decided to do fabric letters again instead of embroidering their names.

Add some soccer grosgrain ribbon for a binding around the hood and you have some fabulous hooded towels!!

And lastly is an order for a family whose dad works with my awesome man.

First graders at their son's school need a book pocket that hangs from their desks.

I've never seen or made one of these before so I am hoping that it is what is needed. She gave me the dimensions, and what prints and colors she wanted. I just used some quilting cottons with a baseball grosgrain ribbon for fun, and used some pre-made bias for the ties. Hopefully it will hold up!

So that's all for now! I have a few more WIPs to finish, and some new things I want to start. The summer is winding down, and I've already started shopping for needed back-to-school things, but not nearly finished. Be well and until later....

Summer of Birthdays!

2010-07-19T16:26:00.004-05:00

If it weren't for birthdays I probably wouldn't be sewing as much!! I have been busy and highly UNmotivated to get into my sewing room this Summer. I am not sure WHAT is going on with me lately! It could be because my sewing room gets pretty warm during the day, and having the iron on doesn't make it any cooler! So you would think I would get in there in the evening...but NOPE!! By then I am tired, the children are hungry and cranky, and my husband would like to see my face. :) It also could be because, once again, my sewing room is a complete and utter MESS! I'll spare you the down-right FRIGHTFUL photos this time...but I'm sure some of you will remember!! :D Anyway, whatever the reason I am not in there as much as I think I need to be...so many items I want to make...SO MANY WIPs!! I keep counting on the fact that my motivation will come back when the children are off to school in August..let's hope that is the case! In the meantime, I will try to keep up my blog with things I DO manage to get accomplished!

My sweet niece turned 2! Here are a few things I made for her.

I know that it is hard to tell...but this is supposed to be an appliqued popsicle!! Can you see it? I've been told it looks like two tennis rackets...or my favorite, two CORNDOGS!! HA! I wasn't happy with the square shaped popsicle applique that I had, so I attempted to make my own..pitiful, I know! One day I'll learn my lesson and just PAY for designs!!

The little bloomers came out cute though! Instead of doing an elastic encased waist, I just shirred it. I love how easy it is and it tends to be more forgiving in the sizing...just in case I'm off a little!

Next, I did a guitar strap for her.

My sister got her a child-sized guitar, so I made a cute strap.

I put a super soft faux fur backing on it!

And put button holes in the ribbon on the ends to make it adjustable. See our cute little Sweetie? She and her brother, Tiger came to live with us this Summer...2 dogs....2 cats...5 kids....UGH!!!

And lastly, I decided to make her a halter top with matching bow.

This halter is based on the one I did for my sister. I combined a couple of different child patterns to cut out the fabric, then used the directions from the Weekend Sewing pattern to add the side sewn bottom straps. I decided to add the ruffle to make sure it was long enough and to crank up the cuteness!

I used Pique Cotton fabric for the front, and a solid white quilting cotton for the liner. I just wanted to make sure the embroidery didn't scratch her, since it is such a big design. It also helped to encase all of the seams. Sorry if this is all so vague...summer heat brain!

I did this beach towel for my sister.

She had a birthday party for a friend's daughter and wanted something quick and simple. I cut letters from fabric with pinking shears and used a big zigzag stitch to sew it on.

Hope you all had a happy 4th!

I really wanted to try the yoga skirt tutorial that was featured on Sew Mama Sew! LOVE IT!!

I did one for me, and one for my 4th of July Birthday girl...she turned 4!! But my oldest daughter wanted a dress, so it was just a quick pillowcase style. Instead of doing the armscyes in the normal "J cut", I decide to do a diagonal cut to make the top more narrow and less bulky. I also added a line of elastic thread stitching right under the arms to give it more of an empire waist.

So that's it....summer sewing, quick and easy. This was the only picture of me wearing the yoga skirt...next time, I will add pockets!! Hope your Summer is going well! I've got some orders due soon, so I will be back hopefully by next week with some more things done. I also attended a wedding this past weekend and caught up with family in Mississippi..some things were made for that trip also. I feel this post is a little erratic, so I am sorry..I have one sleeping on me, while another is screaming and playing with the mouse..hope nothing gets lost!! Until later...

Make It, Wear It

2010-06-22T13:18:00.005-05:00

It seems that I am making it a habit to only post once a month!! What is UP with THAT?? Summer with three children is VERY time-consuming, but I have been managing to squeeze in a little sewing here and there! My older sister is turning FORTY!!! I just LOVE saying that...ha! Anyway, they went to Cancun to celebrate so I decided to make some easy, breezy, beachy items for her to wear. And wouldn't you know that my FAVORITE sewing blog is having a Make It, Wear It Challenge. You could win a new sewing machine and other awesome givings, so go to Sew Mama Sew! and enter something!! :D

Ok, back to what I've been sewing! An outfit you can wear three ways!! Love it!!

The halter is from Weekend Sewing by the FABULOUS Heather Ross! It is the Saturday Night Jersey Halter. I decided to not do the skirt that is part of the set, but instead do a shirred waist skirt to make it a little more beach friendly.

I would love to tell you what type of fabric I used, but I just don't know!! I picked it up at JoAnn's last year. It is like a cotton gauze, but it has elasticized stitching on the wrong side...anyone know what this is called? Here is another option for wearing the halter...

The fabric draped sooooo well. I used a stretch needle and "lined" it with the same fabric. I think when I make myself one, I will try to figure out how to insert a shelf bra for extra support. And perhaps make it a little longer. Once I sewed the two right-sides together, I turned it and did a little zigzag topstitch in a contrasting color. It gave the fabric a "ruffled" effect that I thought made it more feminine...don't you think?

The third option for this outfit is to use the shirred skirt as cover-up!

This fabric is also a cotton gauze with embroidered eyelets. I picked this fabric up last year when it was on clearance, also. I did about twelve rows of shirring so it could be worn as a skirt or dress. I have to say that I am getting better with my shirring technique, my lines are straight and everything!! :D My sister loved the cover-up and halter, but wasn't crazy about wearing them together...I told her she could always give it back!!! ;)

Ms. Priss went to a Girl Scout sleep-away camp this week!!! Her first camp!! We were sooooo excited, but as it is Tuesday, and I haven't been able to call or talk to her, I sure am missing her like CRAZY!! Anyway, the camp is called "Little Mermaids", so they are going to be doing a LOT of swimming. She has enough bathing suits, but the one my sister got for her this year was a one piece with a shirt cover-up. I haven't been able to find bottoms that would match it exactly, so decided to try my hand at making her some.

I used a cotton/poly blend that is stretchy and lightweight. The fabric is soooo soft, I am thinking of using what I have left to make myself a halter...or something!! :D I used a stretch needle and an all purpose thread, and used my Serger instead of hemming. I was just going to use my favorite bloomer pattern and upsize it, but found a cheerleading uniform pattern I had so I used the "panties" pattern instead because I liked the higher cut on the leg. I cut a little extra fabric around the leg, and instead of encasing elastic, I used elastic thread so it would close the leg, but also give it a little ruffle.

Ms. Priss has a funny little shape, so I knew I would have to get creative around her waistline to make it fit right. I cut the front waistline higher than the back because she has a tummy. I stitched the elastic low so it would hit her hips and stop there....and did some shirring with elastic thread so it would hug her tummy, but not cut into. I think it worked out okay, but I will know more when she gets back from camp!

Oh, I didn't line it because the fabric was pretty thick, but I did add a little patch where the seams met in the crotch so it wouldn't "itch" her! :)

Well...I did some other little things for her camp trip, but forgot to take pictures of one...so hopefully it will make it back from camp and I can share!! Maybe I'll be back before the month is over...I am working on a couple of birthday outfits..so let's keep our fingers crossed!! Until later...

May Has Been BUSY!!!

2010-05-25T10:36:00.007-05:00

WOW!! I know that I am not alone when I say that May is CRAZY BUSY!! The end of school always brings lots of goings-on and this past month has been no exception!! Today is the last day of school and it brings lots of HOORAYS and lots of UGHS!!! Hooray...no getting up early, no having to be SOMEWHERE all of the time, no homework and scheduled events that I am ALWAYS late for!! Ugh...all three kiddos home ALL DAY wanting to snack and BE ENTERTAINED!! Having to hear "I'm bored" and the bickering of siblings that is usually brought on by bouts of boredom! No matter what kinds of activities I plan or crafts we make or MOUNTAINS of toys, videos, games, etc...boredom is inevitable...UGH!!! But I am excited about the end of the school year and will hope for a fun, relaxing Summer!! So...updates...The MIL has been in the Nursing Home for about a month now, and it was a good transition. Other than a few "issues" with her roommate, she seems to be happy and getting along well. My SIL came in from Phoenix for my MIL's 80th bday....MISS YOU GIRL!! We grilled enough Ribeyes to feed a small country, and The MIL LOVED her new flat screen TV and CD headphone set....which is perfect for tuning out irritating roomies!! :D So without going on and on...once the MIL was moved out there was LOTS of cleaning, packing things away, and furniture moving (most of which I did myself because of my impatience to wait for help....dumb, I know!!) And now I plan on the 20 yo moving home...AGAIN, shortly!! That is what I expect..hopefully it will be temporary, but I will enjoy having a grass-cutter for the Summer!! HA!
So...anyway....I have been sewing a little. Lots of events for May...a couple of birthdays, teachers' gifts, Mother's day, and miscellaneous gift-giving!

I have decided that if I can NOT embroider directly on tee-shirts, I will be much happier and LESS stressed!! The hardest thing for me when I monogram shirts and onesies is the centering. I always worry and then PRAY when I am pulling the shirt off my hoop that the design is centered and that I haven't RUINED it!! So from now on...at least for my kids..I will be doing all monograms on scrap fabric squares and then sewing them on tee-shirts!!! I have declared it, and it will be so!! :)

Next up, a couple of hooded-towels for some SAINTS fans!!

My friend Jane's twins celebrated their 7th birthday!

I've made a couple of these before and through feedback have learned that the vinyl tends to get stiff and "holds" its shape when hung for long periods of time. So I added some cotton fabric for a backing to see if it works out better!

For Mother's Day, I decided to try my hand at making an updated version of the Fanny Pack for my Momma.

I got the pattern and instructions from the book, One-Yard Wonders...fabulous book!! I look forward to making much more from it!! My sister was not very pleased with me, since she is trying to get my mom AWAY from Fanny packs...oh well!! :D While my SIL was visiting, she noticed my mom's Pretty, Pleated Purse I made using the pattern I won from Tenth Muse Studio, so I guess I will be making my second one soon!!

Then came gifts for Teachers!! Really WHAT can you give teachers? They do soooo much for our kids and I know they appreciate gift cards, but they are so impersonal. Well, my good friend "commissioned" me to make a couple of Rice Heat Therapy bags, which I've never gotten around to making after seeing THIS awesome tutorial featured on Sew Mama Sew! last year.

So I made one for Ms. Priss' teacher, also. Instead of using Velcro, I just did a pillowcase style closure. I used muslin for the rice bags, and 100% cotton fabric for covers. Here are a couple more:

Now, the embroidery thread is a Poly/Rayon blend so I was a little worried as to how they would react in the microwave....no fires or meltdowns..YAY!!

I had a couple of family friends that had babies in the last year and I wanted to make something for them. Now one friend is a corporate lawyer with twin girls....THEY HAVE EVERYTHING!! They are coming up on a year and I still hadn't decided WHAT to make for them!! She would send me emails every day and there would be a new outfit (BOUTIQUE, OF COURSE), or a new toy or baby "needs" item...so my options were LIMITED to say the least!! Beatrix to the RESCUE!! Her Elise Doll pattern is the gift that keeps on giving!!! Thank you sooooo much for allowing me to "test" your AWESOME pattern!!

The one in the middle is for my other friend who had a sweet baby girl in March...can you believe I am ON-TIME with something?? Well, sort of! I decided to monogram names on the back because of the twins...I think it is something I will do from now on!

And lastly....FINALLY, sorry ya'll I know this post is soooo LONG!! Another good friend of mine gave me this outfit in DECEMBER to add an embroidery design to...I just gave it to her last week!! Thankfully she IS a good friend!! :D

I don't know if you can tell in the picture, but this is a Fringe design...my second...so I was worried I would RUIN the outfit...that is why it took me soooo long to do! I am pleased that I didn't mess it up! :) Here is the whole outfit...the little bows are on clippies, just something to "girl" it up some!

Well...that's it!! May has been busy, so I am looking forward to getting back to my lazy days of sewing and reading sewing blogs!! Hope to catch up with all of my sweeties real soon!! Until later...