I accomplished quite a bit this weekend. I made a mini quilt as part of my youngest daughter's birthday present. It was my first attempt at actually quilting something. In the past I have just tied my quilts. Who knows if I did it right, I just went by what I have read online. I think it turned out pretty cute though! I had a return customer, and writer of the blog Stephmodo request some shirts for her cute daughter. So after I made those (which she posted about on her blog), I had a request for one so I made up a whole bunch of them ( 26 to be exact). Aren't they the sweetest? I was going to make different styles than just the birds, then decided to make it easy on myself and just do the birds, anyways every time I make something with a bird on it, it sells.
This weekend I also did some much needed housework, hours and hours of it. And I still have more to do, I have been neglecting housework lately, I can't do that anymore, it drives me nuts! I have been in the spring cleaning mood I guess because I want to go through everything and get rid of stuff, after I get all my craft shows done I'm having a yard sale/craft show. Getting money for my unwanted stuff is the best!
On another note, my husband likes to play his music for the kids, and all three of my girls rock out to it, this weekend my 4 year old was singing Dirty deeds done dirt cheap by AC/DC, it was too funny! Oh the innocence!
Last night I attended a baby shower for a friend that is having a baby boy in a couple of weeks.
So I made a few things : A burpcloth, a couple of bibs, and I appliqued an oh so soft onesie that I found at Walmart (who knew that walmart of all places would have such cute striped onesies, plus they are organic). And I was at one of my favorite shops Hip and Humbleyesterday and I found the cute caterpillar toy.
Having all girls, it was fun putting together a gift for a boy.
I made this up the other morning, and I thought it turned out so cute. It took me longer to decide what buttons to use than to actually sew them on the shirt. Specially since they are some of my vintage buttons that I have such a hard time using, I really want to just leave them in my cute jar and admire them.
This sewing for myself is helping me get out of this slump. Look how cute I was yesterday in the pillowcase style shirt I made for myself. Out of a vintage sheet that I love with yellow vines and butterflies, and vintage bias binding with cute flowers on it.
I'm getting excited about my giveaway for my 50th post! Have a great day!
Last night Casey went to bed a bit before I did. When I got in bed, I was laying there and Casey starts scratching all over, swatting the air, and slapping his face. I observed this behavior for a few minutes, then I asked if he was awake and if he was okay. He said that there was a mosquito that was biting him and buzzing in his ear. He got up, put anti-itch cream all over and came back to bed. We lay there for ohhh, a good half hour in which I finally started hearing said mosquito. During this time Casey covered himself entirely in the sheet with his face poking out, kindof amusing. Casey had had enough and jumped out of bed declaring that he was wide awake because of this damn mosquito (yes I just typed damn) All I could do was laugh and tell him that the mosquito found him to be delicious. He ran to find our electric bug swatter pictured above, and started swatting it everywhere a bit violently at 1:13 this morning. I was hysterically laughing, he killed the mosquito and we went to sleep, finally :)
Yesterday I decided to make a baby quilt, I just have to finish hand sewing the binding down. It was a rather satisfying project that used up a good amount of my stash for one project, I see more of these in the future, next time will be a boy one.
I'm always telling my husband that I am not going to make anymore fabric purchases, easier said than done, especially when I have mula I made from the farmer's market :) Here is a bad picture of some recent fabric purchases, no sun here today, it's seriously been raining so much here, we'll get like a day or two of sun and then it starts raining again, it feels more like a really rainy April then June.
I'm really loving the bird cage fabric from Laura Gunn and I seriously splurged on the Japanese fabric on the right, how could I resist fabric with button cards printed on it? I purchased it here. Kay, I just checked to make sure I linked it right and now there is more cute stuff that wasn't there when I made my purchase! Why does that darn japanese fabric have to be so cute? I hope you are having a nice day and that the mosquitos won't keep you awake at night :)
Recently, upon seeing some of my pictures of toothless Avery, my new "blog" friend(also named Leslie) offered to send me one of her cutie cute owl tooth pillows. She is a very creative lady. i obviously did not turn her down. They came in the mail this week and there was one for Mitchie as well. Are they cute or what?
Leslie, the kids love them. They were a hit as soon as they came out of the box...even more than that, thanks for sending it to them. They loved having mail with their names on it. Thank you for thinking of us. We love them!
I don't have new internet yet, but for some weird reason it's deciding to cooperate! I have missed blogging. So here I am again. Please don't be mad at me sweet blog for it has not been my fault! Last Sunday I wanted to share my cute skirt that I remade in all of about 10 minutes. It began as a very nice linen skirt that I have had for who knows how many years, but haven't worn in awhile. And I collect vintage trims and wanted to use it for something. So I cut it shorter, added a couple of trims, I even left the bottom of the skirt with a raw edge because I think it will look even cuter as it frays, and now I have a cute skirt that I will wear!
Ahh, it feels so good to get some of the things done that have been in my WIP pile for the baby. My to do basket is almost looking, dare i say, empty!!!!
I have acquired several cute flannel prints from Joann's with the intentions of making lovey blankets. Some i have had in stash for a long time, like the baby food jars print. Lovies are our favorite and every one we have given as a gift has been favorites for the new families too!!! They are versatile and warm and just so cute! These were made with two flannel prints(i am loving the animals)...squared...sewn right sides facing...turned out and top stitched! Easy Peasy.
I thought the baby food print would be good for some burp clothes. You can never have too many with a little on, i think....and all the ones i had made for my other two have since worn out. New ones were in order. I cut these into 8 pieces and then used the same sewing method as the lovey blankets.
Oh, and last but not least the Katie Jump Rope Hooter Hider!!!! I love this print. I used the tutorial here to make it, as i have for all the others i have made. Pretty simple and straightforward...but with pregnancy brain i am afraid i did some incorrect measuring. I am not sure it turned out the way it was supposed to, but i will reserve my final judgment until there is baby to nurse under it.
i am so thankful for Amylouwho and the motivation she provides!!! I am joining in this week at sew and tell. There are so many great finishes, as usual. Go and have a look and give them a little comment love!
I am so excited that I finally get to share this quilt! This is my favorite quilt I have made yet. It is now presiding with my sister waiting for my nephew Preston to arrive.
I originally had started making my sister a different quilt. But then I saw Dare to be square quilting by Boo Davis, and when I saw the wiener dog quilt I had to make it.
I used gingham for the back, so cute!
And I used Kona solids and some prints from my stash. I was a little scared to attempt this initially, I was worried I wouldn't be able to match everything up right, but it was pretty simple and fun to make. And so stinkin cute!
I was at the thrift store yesterday and bought a package of fabric. Usually when I buy a package of fabric it is just for a couple of pieces in that package. When I opened it up I found this mauvey purple fabric and thought, that would make some cute skirts. Kinsley didn't want a skirt, so I made them for Jade and Sage. I have had this idea to put triangles on a skirt like this for about a year now, I don't know why it took me so long to actually do it. I was so excited when I got them finished last night, the girls were asleep, so I had to wait until this morning to see them on, I love them! And more importantly my girls love them! So stinkin cute if I do say so myself :)
So, the girls went back to school on Monday and I have started building up my inventory again. I am excited for new ideas I have. I've been getting packages of supplies in the mail. Does anyone else get excited about crafting supplies? Hair barrettes, and earrings and headbands, oh my! (it's okay if you think I am a nerd ) :)
I am dying over how stinkin small and cute this size of barrette is, it's not much over an inch! Please don't pay attention to my dry hands, Utah's winter weather is not nice to my skin!
also edited to add: after I posted this, my hand looked huge in the picture, well, it is a larger than life picture I guess. So I really don't have huge-o hands, just in case you were wondering :)
I embellished some girls shirts today. I think they turned out cute, ruffles and ric rac, yummy! I gotten quite a bit done already this week, I really think I was ready to get back to work! I appliqued 60, yes 60 dish towels. And I also made a whole bunch of headbands. Up next on the list, women's shirts, I think those will be ruffly too!
This was my flea market/antiquing treasure for the weekend(among others). And honestly, even if i never sew with it it was absolutely worth the 25 i paid for it. Isn't she beautiful? She is definitely going to need a name. Any suggestions? Also if anyone has used one of these before and has tips that you know i need, let me know. i am all ears! I can not get over how amazing this sewing machine is. Take a moment of silence with me to just gaze at her!.........
I picked up a few small things. This tea cup is destined to be a pin cushion for my sewing table. It is such a perfect shade of green/blue. The fridge dish was a steal. It is so cute and adorable and tiny....i have been slowly accumulating these to replace the plastic that is cluttering up my cabinets.
I was so excited to find this quilt...i can not say exactly how old it is or what the story behind it is but at 20 i knew it was coming home with me. I have washed it and am working on some stains but i think there is hope. I don't think that you can see this in the picture but every fan is trimmed with ric-rac. How cute?? And the back looks to be a sheet. It is hand quilted and just bright and fun. How can a girl pass that up?
This was my other quilt find. I saw it on a rack and asked the lady in the booth how much and she said 10. I said, "excuse me?"i did not think i had heard her right. When she repeated the same i told her right awway i would take it. i don't think i even looked at it closely. This one is older and definitely is going to need a little more love and care. I think it is a true scrap quilt, by necessity. There is such a huge and amazing variety of fabric styles and weights. I did not see the red "stripes" in it until i looked at the pictures. Love it!
Thanks for indulging me...sorry to any of you die hard Flea Market Fancy fabric lovers... hope i did not mislead you. But this week these were my true flea market fancy treasures!!!
The lovely Steph of Stephmodo, asked me to applique some napkins with cherries on them, and then we ended up doing some cute notebooks for favors for her youngest daughter's half birthday party. She brought the cutest cherry sucker she purchased in France, that she planned the party around. So cute! You can see more of the sweet party she planned here.
When i got home from my sisters this week i was feeling especially motivated to get some sewing done. Perhaps the old adage, "absence makes the heart grow fonder", applies to my sewing machine too! I went right to work finishing this baby blanket i had started with a honey bun of Hello Betty fabric.
i considered all sorts of ideas for how i would quilt it but in the end i just went with my old standby... straight line quilting. It is fast and rather uncomplicated. Every row of stitching is about 2 inches apart. I got the binding on and sewn last night and this morning, my favorite part. It is a baby gift for a neighbor, so i hope she will like it.
I did not want to buy more fabric to back it and bind it so i went to the trusty stash closet to see what i could find, and that closet sure did not let me down. I, at some point or another, had bought a baby curtain on clearance in the hope that someday i would be able to use it for backing since it was so big. And that is precisely what i did. These elephants were just too cute to resist and i love them with the fabric of the quilt.
Now this last shot is just to show that i am already working on other things...trying to be real with myself about the projects i have started and seeing if i can just go ahead and finish them from where they are. Sometimes i think i am too ambitious with what i want to do....so i start a lot of things but don't really get many them finished. Craft ADD anyone?
**It is time for me to get back on the sew and tell wagon. So i am going to go ahead and link this up to amylouwho's to share with the ladies there. take a minute and go check out what everyone else has made this week. I don't know about anyone else but i feel productive, finally.**
Ah I don’t know what has gotten into me lately – I have been blogging like a mad woman! At least two posts a day for the past weekish. There are stints when I find little to no movie news or reviews that interest me but lately... lately there has been tonnes. Dawn French tonnes. If there hasn’t been a new cinema-plex opening or a new movie worth reviewing, then there’s hordes of news which interests me and I want to write about it. I’m hoping this post will satisfy my insatiable urge to write blog posts at the moment and I intend to have at least a day break after this. But seriously, I just HAD to give you the run down on some up and coming new releases. I had a YouTube binge last night and caught up on a bunch of trailers I hadn’t seen and rewatched some I had. Anywho, here’s my selection of MUST SEE movies for the months of June and July.
Two Lovers
James Gray, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Nay, let me count the films; Little Odessa (digged), The Yards (blew my freakin' mind), We Own The Night (adored). Now we have his latest offering and Joaquin Phoenix’s alleged last foray in to acting, Two Lovers. The theme of love and the dark comedic elements are new features in a Gray film which has previously dealt with family relations and crime. However, Two Lovers does look like a splendid adult-drama with a juicy cast. It was released in Australia last week but won’t be screening on the Gold Coast until this Thursday (if we’re lucky).
The Hangover
Looks like this little gem from the director of Old School is shaping up to be the surprise comedy hit of the year, but it’s still early days. The trailer is hilarious and in the US it opened to a $46 – $53 million weekend ahead of the Will Ferrell blockbuster Land of the Lost. The critics are frothing for The Hangover too with the almighty Empire giving it four stars. Pretty impressive for a comedy-formula that seems tired. Apparently one of the many benefits here is instead of covering the dramas of a bachelor party, The Hangover starts once the party is over and the three mates have lost the groom (and their memories). Sounds a like a frat-pack version of Memento but the trailer is very appealing, plus Bradley Cooper is great in pretty much anything he’s in.
Bruno
Try and ignore the controversy if you can, but you simply cannot ignore the brilliance of the Bruno trailer. There are few times I have laughed so hard during a trailer. I enjoyed Borat but from the snippets of Bruno I’ve seen, I think Sacha Boren Cohen’s latest character will trump him. The best recommendation I can give this movie is the trailer, I particularly love the African American scenes.
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Everytime I watch this trailer I get goosebumps. Whether that's because the trailer is actually good or because I'm a massive fan of the books, it's hard to know. I do know this, this movie begins to build towards the Harry Potter series climax which will come to life on screen in the from of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (to be released six months apart respectively). I’ve never been a huge fan of the films but the last two have certainly improved my expectations dramatically and this looks Potteriffic.
Drag Me To Hell
Easily the film I’m most excited about on this list. Long before director Sam Raimi did the Spiderman films he dominated the horror genre with his Evil Dead series (among others). Apparently Drag Me To Hell is a hilarious and horrific return to form for one of the genre’s heroes. It premiered at Cannes and since then has got rave reviews from every Tom Dick and Harry film critic. Horror is one of my favourite genres but recently there have been only a handful of decent films. Going off the trailer, Drag Me To Hell looks like an awesome ride and I can’t wait to be genuinely scared at the movies again. Its been too long.
My Sisters Keeper
I know, it’s hard to get past the vomit-inducing movie poster complete with Abigail Breslin and Cameron Diaz looking cute. My Sister’s Keeper has been a long awaited adaptation of Jodi Piccoult’s best selling novel. I heard great things about the book and was sincerely disappointed upon finishing it. The book was drawn out, self-indulgent and overly soppy. To my surprise, the trailer looks like its done a much better job of compacting the themes and storyline of the novel. Cameron Diaz looks like she’s about deliver a stellar performance but one of the major reasons to see this film has to be Sofia Vassilieva. Here she plays cancer-ridden Kate but most of you would recognise her from tv’s Medium. She’s a superb little actress and I look forward to seeing this movie despite the misleadingly happy poster (when really this is a film about cancer, death and family relations).
That Land of the Lost shiz is out this Thursday too and as much as I love Will Ferrell, I don’t think I can sit through two hours of him trying to do a Brendan Fraser in Journey to the Centre of the Earth. There’s this other movie you may or may not have heard of, Transformers something? Transformers 2, that’s it. The Bayhem hits screens on June 24 which is, like, so soon for the fanboys patiently waiting. Ew.
p.s. Mickey Rourke’s turn as Russian baddie Whiplash certainly makes Jack Sparrow look straight as a ruler. This, dear readers, is the latest image off the set of Iron Man 2, the sequel to the Robert Downey Jr hit of `08. Rourke stars as the thorn in Tony Stark’s metallic side for the sequel along with Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer. This is the first look at Rourke as Whiplash and was pointed to off Jon Favreau’s Twitter account. I must say, the get-up is a bit... erm... campe? With Scar-Jo in leather as Black Widow and Rourke rocking the bondage, it seems the sequel will be catering to all fetishes. Bunuel would be proud kinky has gone so mainstream.
I recieved my first Japanese sewing book in the mail today, here is a little peek at it, we'll see if I try out anything in it, I am not the best at using patterns, they do seem pretty easy to figure out, and there are sooooo many cute things in it that would be the cutest on my girls.
And I added a few things to my shop today, I like how the pictures turned out way better than before, against the really cool weathered wall.
My friend Becky is starting this new site called Patchwork Posse, every month there are new sewing related projects and lots of fun stuff. So, today I won a membership! YAY! Go check it out, I am excited about it, I think she has come up with a great idea and I am excited that I get to be a part of it!
In other news: I know some of you have probably already seen it, but I did a pattern review for Sew Mama Sew!
Here's the link!
Also, Dana from MADEwon a package of things from me awhile back and she repurposed a towel I sent her into these adorable aprons she made for her kids! She is the queen of repurposing I tell you! So cute!
Sage requested a new skirt the other day, so I let her pick out the fabrics for one. I loved what she picked out.
The skirt itself is from a bedsheet I bought at Urban Outfitters. And the apron part is from the Orla Kiely tablecloth I used to make my kitchen curtains.
The hubby and I had some time to ourselves last night. We went to Star Trek, I was surprised I actually thought it was an alright movie. Have I told you before that my husband is a really big nerd? Well he is :) maybe I'll do a post just about that sometime soon, I have proof of the nerdness :) Anyways, we had about an hour or so to kill before the movie started and we were at my favorite place, The Gateway in Salt Lake. Anthropologie is there and I can't go to the Gateway without stopping there:) They were having a sale and these bowls were $2 a piece, so cute. I also got a few napkins that I am going to repurpose. And as always, I come out of that store with so many ideas of things I want to make. Have a great weekend!
about 2 weeks ago there was a big neighborhood yard sale. We are a pretty young neighborhood, but luckily some of the moms of the ladies who live here came and came with goodies!!! I found all of these vintage sheets and pillowcases all at one house. Pretty right?
Then this week i was blogging around, whilst hanging out with my couch, and i found this idea for a nightgown with a tutorial. I modified the tutorials a little and came up with this for Avery.
The bottom of the pillowcase with this scalloped detail is my favorite part. Those little raspberries on the fabric are so cute!
Sewing clothing is not my strong suit. With quilting i know all the steps to follow and what order to do them in...with clothes i get a little turned around , get stuck and then ask myself how am i supposed to do this? Since this is for sleeping i think it will do. The true test will be if she wears it for more than one night!!
**since this is the only significant sewing i have done in a really long while i am going to go ahead and link this up to this weeks edition of sew and tell at Amylouwho's. Say hello to all the ladies who made something wonderful this week**
