8 months later…

I know I said I was done blogging. I was, and I didn’t for long while. I’ve since decided that I miss some of it. I got tired of annoying my family and friends on facebook with sewing pictures all but 3 of them couldn’t care less about!  So here I am.

Here are a few things that have kept me busy this month.

I made Ashlyn a skirt using Simple Simon’s vintagely modern skirt as an inspiration. I changed the waist band to fit her better but next time I’ll make it shorter.  The shirt was a women’s spaghetti strap tank top jump suit that I altered, a lot!

I’ve got a few new nieces and nephews on the way and hope to make a quilt for each of them. This is the first of 4. I had to send it off quickly so I folded it up and tried to jam it in a tiny package, remembered I wanted a picture so I dug it out, then put it back. That’s why it’s sooo wrinkly and folded. I used a mini tutorial from Film in the Fridge. It was so quick, I love it!

I love slouchy pants and wanted to try the tutorial by Suburbia Soup You Call It pants. I changed them a bit adding gathered pockets and elastic to the legs. Kennedy loves them and wants to wear them everyday. I’ve already made a nautical pair that I can’t wait to give to her.

Kaci got a brand new American Girl doll for Christmas but wasn’t impressed that she came with one “plain” dress so I made her another. I used a free Felicity dress pattern from here. It was not the funnest thing to sew ever but she loves it so that’s what matters.

It’s nice to have a spot to archive all the things I’ve made and the tutorials I used with them!

My Trick or Treaters

Not feeling the Halloween spirit this year I just didn’t want to make a ton of costumes. Normally I love to make them but I couldn’t get into it this year. I managed to wrangle the kids into throwing things together with stuff we had or borrowed so I only had to make a few things and one full costume.

I don’t feel a bit guilty about it either! Well maybe a little when I saw some of the awesome costumes floating around. Next year maybe I’ll be more into it and knock some socks off. Until then here’s this years show.

This is the only costume I made from scratch. Mary went as a Yip Yip alien from sesame street. Two cheapo blankets and a few styrofoam balls and she was done. No one knew what she was and she kept getting called a squid but she got her bucket filled to the brim so that’s all she cared about.

Kaci was the ever popular this year Red Riding Hood. It’s one my mom made for my little sister 13 years ago. She just moved so it was amazing she knew where it was and could find it for me. I made nothing for Kace this year, thanks mom!

Ashlyn was the wolf dressed as grandma. All I had to make were the ears and bonnet and the rest we had in our attic, so she smelled like a grandma too. Score.

Jake was supposed to be the Woodsman but I think he looks more like a homeless guy with a weapon. As you can see I didn’t put much into his costume :).  He loved that we were walking around at night but was not interested in the candy at all. He kept trying to give his candy to the people answering their doors. He was more interested in the duck and cat running around and tried to take those home with us instead.

 

We also had a phantom and Masquerade Barbie recycled from two years ago. No stress, tons of candy, and a great time was had by all. Hope you had a fantastic Halloween as well!

 

And the winner of the Downtown Tape giveaway is-

Lucky duck!

Thank you so much Downtown Tape for the awesome giveaway!

Downtown Tape Washi Giveaway!

Have you caught the washi tape bug yet? I have and I absolutely love the stuff. I have a few rolls, not nearly enough, and have so much fun adding a little here and a little there.

It’s hard to find a good source that doesn’t cost an arm and leg and then kills you with shipping.  That’s why I’d like to introduce you to Downtown Tape. Downtown Tape sells all of their rolls for only $1.99, plus they have flat rate shipping of $2.95. I love flat rate shipping!


There’s just so much you can do with washi tape and you don’t need a bunch of fancy tools or know-how to use it. Instant cutification.

Like this-

Or this-

And this-

Plus about a million other ideas if you have a minute to spend browsing Pinterest.

Downtown Tape has graciously offered one of my readers 10 rolls of tape + 25 tags!

And everyone is a winner if you sign up for the Downtown Tape newsletter to find out about new designs, sales and specials. You’ll also get a free printable sheet of tags sent to your inbox valued at $10.00.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
This giveaway is open to everyone world wide- yay! Only entries received through the rafflecopter form will be counted. Giveaway is open until November 1st. Good luck!

My Boys

I haven’t blogged about my boys in far too long. I blog about the lovely things I want to show off which are sewing and crafty things, and usually girl related. I forget sometimes that a little update about the men in my life for the family and friends would be nice. I haven’t sold them to the circus although it looks that way by my blog.

Jeremy is in the 7th grade and is going to be 13 in January. He is running Cross Country again this year and loves it. His last race is coming up and he is a little bummed it’s almost over. He’s getting much faster so that makes it more fun for him. Now that he’s in junior high he is getting pretty busy and is rarely home. His appetite is that of an elephant. That’s kind of a big deal since he ate us out of house and home the minute he was born. I didn’t think it was possible for one person to eat more much more than he already did and I grew up with a teenage brother. He is turning into quite the awesome young man!

 

This little buddy, my baby Jake, isn’t such a baby anymore. He’ll be 2 next month. This is the first time in 10 years I’m not pregnant on my baby’s 2nd birthday. I’m usually buying gender specific baby clothes by now but not this time, and I’m super okay with that.  He’s such a sweet mellow personality and goes with the flow, which is so Cody and not me at all. Such a nice change!  He’s a rough and tumble kid though when he wants something and would much rather push his way around than ask. He doesn’t say much, other than mom and some signs, but we’re working on it and have some help so hopefully some time soon he’ll be able to communicate better. I love smooching on his ridiculously chubby cheeks every day!

 

 

My other boys. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this on the blog before but I became the Cub Scout cub master in March, which keeps me hopping. Not something that comes naturally to me and I am completely out of my comfort zone. I’m getting more and more comfortable every month, which helps ease the anxiety :).

They are a ton of fun! I’m learning to be more organized, more outgoing, faster at switching from one activity to the next, and really good with duct tape. I’ve made a ton of fun things but forget to get pictures before they get destroyed or eaten!  I’ll have to remember to bring my camera next week to show off the fun things I have planned.

Off to bake some cookies and plan out Halloween sewing. I love Halloween sewing!

Our New Baby

Things have been pretty busy around here now that the new baby showed up. I haven’t talked about her much but thought I should introduce her. Kennedy is a new mom! This is Cinderella Baby.

If Cinderella Baby is an indicator of things to come I will be one busy Grandma some day. I asked Kennedy if she wanted a diaper for her new baby since it didn’t come with one. A trip through my fabric and several requests later and this is what we have-

A new super soft sleeping bag with built in pillow, a silky blanket, a cute blanket, pajamas with matching diaper and hat, a ballerina skirt and pink shirt, a church dress and ruffly diaper, and 6 wipes. She asked for 10 but mom had to say no some time. Plus wipes aren’t as cute to sew ;o).

I think she’s set for a while.

Being a mom is the best.

 

I used this pattern for the diapers (but lined them and made with cotton and flannel), this pattern for the dresses/shirt, and came up with my own sleeping bag and wipes.

 

Have a great weekend!

Mom is too cheap girls…

While school shopping this year I fell in love with a suspender shirt from forever21 that I thought would look adorable on my girls.

The problem for me with being crafty and falling in love with things I see online is that I’m too cheap to pay $40 with shipping for 3 t-shirts when I know I can make them for a fraction of that. My girls always groan when I mention I’ll make them instead. They know that their mom has every intention of making them but sometimes gets sidetracked and forgets to finish them. So with picture in hand and promises to have them finished for school we headed to the store and grabbed a few supplies. $10 and a week later, I have to procrastinate a little, we had three of these-

Mary isn’t pictured because she couldn’t find her red pants and told me “Mom, how can I go to school in my shirt without red pants huh!”. I don’t know how I managed to go 13 years without a single pair of red pants? Needless to say she went, with tears and khaki pants with a different shirt so no picture. Kind of a shame since hers came out the best. Oh well.

Here is how I made mine in case someone else wants to give them a whirl. I drew an outline of the suspenders on pieces of freezer paper with a fine tip sharpie, nothing pretty or exact because I loved the hand drawn look of the original. I cut them out with an exacto knife and ironed them on each shirt.

Next I painted on black fabric paint with a paint brush and let them dry for a few hours, then I peeled off the freezer paper and added a little gold fabric paint with my paintbrush to the rings and bottoms of the suspenders.

After that all I had to do was pin on some stretchy sequin trim from the ribbon section and sew it down and sew on black bows. So easy and probably my favorite school shirts this year. Definitely this crazy girls favorite.

Little old lady

I mentioned last time I blogged, which I don’t expect anyone to remember because I’m a big loser and haven’t blogged much this summer, that Mary was turning 8. She was baptized on her birthday and it was such a special day for her. Her birthday just happens to be during Cody’s family reunion so there were a lot of family members there that wouldn’t have been able to come otherwise which I am so thankful for. We have an awesome family!

I like the idea of my girls having 3 white dresses of their very own- first a blessing dress, next a baptism dress, and hopefully a wedding dress- so I make a new one for each girl. I was running majorly late so I didn’t get very good pictures, yet.

Mary chose a dress completely copied from Corner House. Her dress is absolutely gorgeous and I was excited to give it a try. I just saw her pictures and did my own thing based on those. I was majorly bummed that the main fabric I ordered and thought was matte raw silk was instead shiny and I had no time to figure something else out. I don’t like shiny satin at all and it was too slick to hold the sash up. The sash kept sliding up and shortening her torso so I felt it made her look plus sized when she is not, and when I tried to tack it down it looked pinched and weird.  As much as I wanted our dress to look like the inspiration it did on the hanger (sort of) but not at all to me when Mary wore it,  which is disappointing but it wasn’t my dress and Mary loved it so that’s all that matters. She said she felt like Belle from Beauty and the Beast so my job was done!

 

For her cake she she was very specific. Drew me a diagram and labeled it specific. She asked for a blue cake with blue candles and “dolafins” jumping out of the water. Her cake picture looked so cute I should have let her decorate it! The control freak in me couldn’t handle all blue so I snuck some purple in there. Can I just shout out from my roof top how much I love Wilton and the big honking tips they make. I jumped on the rose cake bandwagon and can’t get off. Makes me feel all fancy and stuff.

See, I liked it so much that for Kennedy’s birthday 2 weeks later I used it again. It won’t be the last time.

 

Four out of six kids are in school all day and Kennedy, Jake, and I are getting quite a rhythm down. I’m busting out crafty things again and it feels great. Good things to come, which is really good since the show off in my has been underfed this summer :).

Have a great Wednesday!

Summer days

It’s been a few weeks and my blog has been really quiet. If the blog is quiet that means it’s not in real life! We’ve been enjoying as much summer as we can cram in. We met cousins we haven’t had the chance to meet yet, including the newest one Kyla.

The kids couldn’t get enough of her, and I wouldn’t be able to either if she would let me hold her. One day soon I’ll be able to bribe her and buy her love ;o).  Jake thought she needed to be held and squeezed as much as he could. He was a great car seat rocker as well. More like a carnival ride- we need to work on that. Kaci thought she was hilarious. Six year old potty humor…

While my sister was here she had the baby blessed in a gown my mom made for her. I made a pair of booties out of the scraps.

I realized how long it’s been since I’ve sewn a pair of booties, 2 years, and they weren’t for my baby. It shows in the fit. A bit wide and her toes are touching the very very end. I did get the straps perfectly though. I guess I remember my babies as having really wide, really flat small feet! 

We’ve also had several reunions this summer. For one last weekend the kids made a piñata. I made the shape and taped it together and they did all the decorating-

Well 5 started, three lasted 3 hours, and then there were 2. It took them 6 hours over 2 days to decorate and 10 minutes to break open. Next time I won’t use duct tape, even after 40 or so kids getting in 3 whacks each it took a few good cracks from the big kids and Cody to finally get some candy out!

And my favorite, but not funny at all (maybe a little) picture so far this summer. Ashlyn’s soccer game-

She doesn’t see much action in the games as a defender so when she finally got the ball all to herself I started snapping away. She totally plowed this poor boy over without even noticing and kept her eye on the ball the entire time. His face in in the grass, no hands to catch himself. She really wanted that ball! If you know her at all she’s the most timid and quiet girl so it totally cracked me up. As bad as it looks he just popped right back up and kept playing like nothing happened.

Tomorrow is Mary’s 8th birthday so I’ve been sewing like a mad woman trying to get her baptism dress done, a dolphin cake (???) and cupcakes done, and programs and such figured out. I should be able to go to bed at 4. In the morning!!!

Pictures of the finished projects to come next week. Have a fantastic weekend!

Couch Camouflage

There’s nothing better on warm summer days than a new dress, messy hair, and bare feet. Well maybe the root beer popsicle she ate afterward.

The dress is from my mom’s pattern stash that she let me borrow, New Look 6257. It’s actually an infant size dress pattern so I cut it out as a large, took the tiniest seem allowance I could, and lengthened the skirt about 4 inches and ended up with a size 4. I might have to dig up more baby patterns I’ve saved and never got around to sewing and see what I can come up with for the wee one who’s not so wee anymore. She’s going to be 4 next month!

Most of the time patterns frustrate the crud out of me so I don’t use them but this one went together really quickly and came out just as I was hoping it would. It looks exactly like I thought it would. I love it when that happens.

Earlier last month I inherited a new to me couch from my grandmother that I can’t wait to recover, when I learn how and find the right fabric anyway. In about 12 years it might actually get done. I’m not very good at the whole décor thing or getting motivated to do something about it. Not something that’s ever really been a favorite thing of mine. The fanciest I get is making new pillow covers every once in a while which I did a few weeks ago (for our other gray couch) to brighten up our living room. I was trying a tiny bit to care. I laughed when I saw this picture of Kennedy. The kids picked up the living room for me and threw all the pink pillows on the pink couch in Kennedy’s favorite spot. She’s camouflaged to my couch!

How’s that for décor? It moves and changes all the time ;). Have a great Monday!

Flocked

I’ve always loved chickens. I rescued one when I was 13, though now I’m pretty sure it didn’t need rescued and ended up chicken napped, and have raised them off and on since then.

It makes me feel like the little country girl I always wanted to be, living the farm life milking cows and stuff, but we always lived in town. Now I get to wake up to chickens clucking. I send the kids to gather eggs, 6-8 every day. I pawn off eggs to all our family members that visit.  The neighbors hate us since we still live in town and have 8 chickens in our backyard that like to hang out against the fence 5 or so feet from their bedroom window in the wee hours of the morning. Maybe I should send some eggs over but I’m kind of afraid they would end up on my house.

When I’m sewing in our dining room I can see them running after bugs through the window.  See Betty (or “Nugget” depending on which kid you ask), she likes the new dress set I just finished for Kennedy.

When I ran across this chicken fabric it had to come home with me. It was one of those sale things I grabbed because it was cute and had no idea what I was going to do with it.

I needed a plastic bag holder and thought it would be fun to add a little something. It hides in our laundry room but every time I see Mr. Rooster and his harem it makes me smile. Sometimes you just need a fun fabric that you wouldn’t really use for anything spectacular but it makes you happy. Next time I get out of the sticks and see a real fabric store I might have to buy more, he’s growing on me.

Have a great weekend!