Christmas stuff

Advent calendar, plate for Santa's goodies, basket gift for Emma's teacher (I'm known for forgetting to send snacks and stuff with emma, so I filled it with snacks, gloves, hats, umbrella, bandaids, lotion and hand sanitizer!), and skirt I made before thanksgiving. I actually have stuff to make a matching one, but I got a little tired of sewing. The instructions weren't that great and made it a lot more work than it should have been. But I'm getting the sewing bug again, so I've gotta maximize on that and get Christmas skirts made.

I'm BA-ACK!

I'm creating again and it feels GOOOOOOD!

Just finished this dress. It's a Pink Fig pattern-the Lily top. And I love it. Normally you use the same fabric on the sleeves as the bottom ruffle, but I didn't have enough. But I still love it! And the shirring was way easier than I thought it would be, especially AFTER I figured out that I needed to keep the fabric pulled taut each time I added another line. Before I did the shirring I showed the dress to Dave and he thought it was for Emma b/c it was so big, but it turned out just the right size for Bree after the shirring-it was fun to see it start to look like the picture when I started shirring. Okay, that was using the word shirring too many times in one sentence.

Sorry for the jammie pants under the dress and Bree's ragamuffin look. At least she posed for me!

Kandy Kisses Boutique

So this is a blog I've been stalking for a while b/c of all the AWESOME things she makes. And now she's launching a New Spring Collection on April 16th! "Maggie" will be a 15-20 piece mix and match collection of sweet everyday boutique pieces with prices ranging from $9.99 to $65! WATCH OUT PEOPLE! The sneak peek picture is making me nuts. Too bad we're moving and I've already packed away sewing and crafty stuff, b/c I am ITCHING to sew! Guess I'll just have to buy her stuff :)

Make sure you check it out HERE!

Latest creation

I got all of this Lila Tueller Woodland Bloom fabric on sale and I'm so excited! I used the Pink Fig

"Girly Stripwork Skirt" pattern for this skirt. This is Bree's. Emma's will be a little different, but mostly the same. Ever since I've been buying "nice" designer fabric, I've felt like I needed to finish all the edges on things I make so they don't fray and become articles of clothing that I have the girls wear only one time b/c there are strings hanging everywhere. You know what I mean? My machine has an overcast stitch, but it takes a long time to stitch. But I did it on this skirt and I'm so glad-it looks really well made and she'll be able to wear it a lot. But I think I'm at the point now where I want a serger. I've "graduated." So hopefully we can afford that in the near future :)

Above All Fabric contest!

You can win some great fabric prizes if you enter her contest here. But don't too many of you enter...it'll lessen my chances of winning!! :) I've only won one contest in my life, but it was a good one. Hopefully I'll continue my winning streak :)

piggy bank

I've been wanting to make one for the girls. I'm not a huge fan of pigs as a decorative item in a room (stuffed animals are okay), so that wasn't the route I wanted to take. So to joanns I went for inspiration. I thought maybe of doing a few paper mache boxes and cutting slits in the lids, but they didn't have any good sizes. Then I went into the jewelry storage section and saw it. A button holder. It's a circular container cut into 8 "pie" wedges for different colored buttons. I brought it home, measured the little paper inserts they had in a few of the wedges, and printed off the words onto pieces of paper and put them in. I put little tiny slivers of paper at the "break" between each section of 4 to separate each girl's section. A few embellishments later and I LOVE it! Each girl has her own side-4 slots each. 10% into invest, save, tithing and 70% into spending. Now we'll be starting on the whole "allowance thing :)